Life is Hard
by ThatBlueScreenGuy
Summary: Life is hard. Dying is easy. And when a man turned wizard dies, he just finds himself back to the difficulties of life, only a long way from home, and with new found power. Now, he has to help fight against the galaxy's greatest threats, all while being tempted by a being older than time itself. Life is hard. But it sure as Hell beats the alternative. (Mass Effect meets Magic)
1. Finding the Magic

When you get right down to it, life is hard. But dying is easy.

There is so much that needs to go right for life to come about. You need to be in a place that can support life, which is a rarity in and of itself. Parents, in whatever form they take, need to come together to conceive their child. From that conception, any number of things can go wrong, ending that life. And that doesn't even factor in the attention and energy and commitment that's required to bring life about.

Life is full of so much pain and challenge, and misery, and the very second we notice that we've stopped growing, we realise that we're dying. We get to watch, year after year, as our bodies age and deteriorate, with only our instincts telling us to keep going. That means that we have to live with the knowledge that death is inescapable. Life is so momentously difficult to bring around and maintain, and it's full of so many pitfalls and hazards.

Dying, on the other hand, is simple. Easy, even. It can be done with relatively minor effort, a few ounces of lead, a heavy weight, a sharp edge… or a raging fire.

I died consumed by flames.

I'm not sure what got me first: the fire's heat, or the suffocation as it drew out my breath for fuel. Really, I don't think it matters in the end. Everyone gets there eventually. _How _doesn't matter neatly so much as _when_.

When I died, I had expected something to happen. I mean, there were so many near-death eyewitnesses and texts of faith on the subject, I had figured that someone had gotten it right somewhere. Maybe I'd end up with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, or get to drink mead served by valkyries in the hall of Valhalla, waiting for the day that Ragnorok came. Hell, maybe I'd end up burning in some fiery pit somewhere, as punishment for the sins I never atoned for. But none of that happened.

When I died, everything around me stopped. I don't mean that everything disappeared, as though all my perceptions suddenly ended, as some people predict what happens when you die. I mean everything froze in place. The raging fires consuming the building around me froze. The dull feeling of the fire ravaging my charred flesh stopped. The pathetic weezing that I knew were my attempts at screaming ceased before they left my lips. Everything around me froze in place, as though someone hit the universes pause button. It almost felt as though my body had taken a snapshot of the area around me, so I could get a good look at what killed me before I died. It was kinda sick, really.

Then, just as suddenly as everything stopped, everything disappeared, replaced by a vast expanse of white. I felt myself standing on some kind of hard ground, and dimly wondered just how I was standing to begin with, given the whole "burnt to a crisp" thing. When that thought entered my mind, I also noticed that I wasn't a charred corpse anymore, but rather perfectly fine. My clothes, a black and blue hoodie, cargo pants, and sneakers, were undamaged and not at all covered in soot. For all intents and purposes, I hadn't been in that burning building.

The sound of confident footfalls, drew my attention away from my condition and up to a man walking right toward me. He looked like a young man, maybe early twenties, that wore jeans, a tee shirt, and a simple blue jacket. His dark gold hair fell down his face to shade piercing blue eyes. That's what he _looked_ like, but not what he _felt_ like.

There was this… aura, I guess, around him that seemed so utterly final and absolute. That made me feel as though I were some sort of flimsy and insignificant fly that flew past the vastness of the Grand Canyon. The fact that this guy was standing perfectly still, and I mean _perfectly_ still, didn't help me with my feeling of insignificance.

He stopped a few feet away, and just looked at me, seemingly waiting for me to take the first move.

I stared back at him, trying not to fold in on myself and look like a child who got caught doing something they shouldn't. After a few moments, I said, "Um. Where am I?"

He smiled at me a little. "Between," was his reply. His voice was gentle and angelic and _so fucking deep_. I don't mean in the octave range; my voice was more baritone than his. I mean in it's scope and depth and meaning and subtlety. It's the kind of voice that old people get, near the end of their lives, full of experience and knowledge, and they don't have the words to even begin describing it to you.

"Between, huh?" I fidgeted from one foot to another, a nervous habit. My voice might have been a little shaky, too. "Between where?"

He shrugged. "Just Between."

"Oh."

We lapsed into a silence after that. I tried again to break it, asking, "So, why am I here, then?"

He nodded, as if waiting for the question, replying. "Someone broke the rules."

I stared at him for a moment, a stray thought running through my head. This guy looked familiar. Or, at least, his description did…

I took a shot in the dark, and laced my voice with more confidence than I felt when I asked, "So, Mr. Sunshine, who broke 'em?"

His eyebrows went up as he heard the nickname that only one other person had called him. So, I was right. This guy was an archangel. Not just any archangel, either, but Heaven's own spook, Uriel. To be truthful, I thought this guy only existed in a fictional book series.

"How do you know that nickname?" he asked, and I could see the hints of small amounts of surprise on his face.

"Um, I read it in a book series," I said, suddenly feeling very self conscious again. Christ, I feel so small... "It's, uh. It's called the Dresden Files, and it's all the major cases of Harry Dresden."

Uriel cast his eyes downward, seemingly searching for something in his mind. Then a look of recognition spread across his face, and he looked back at me, saying, "Ah, those book. I had wondered just how much time we would spend with me explaining your situation to you. Given that you have a frame of reference, it should speed things along considerably."

"Uh," I said, "yeah, I guess that makes sense. I'm just trying to get over the fact that I'm not only dead, but in the presence of a being who has enough power to end galaxies."

He nodded. "I suppose that makes sense. You never did deal with the supernatural before now," And then he smiled at me. "And just be thankful that I have no intentions of ending galaxies, as you say. I have my purpose, and I fulfill it as needed. Which, to move forward, is why I am here before you."

When he smiled at me, I couldn't help but get chills down my spine. There was just something there that made me jumpy. I couldn't really say what, other than his presence was something that said he _would_ end galaxies, if it meant that he did his job.

"Okay," I said, fighting off the shivers. "And what are you here for? You mentioned something about someone breaking the rules. I'm going to assume you mean someone's free will?"

He nodded. "Correct. Someone had subverted anothers free will, and I was tasked with correcting this. However, unlike with Dresden, you do not need to find your killer, as he has died along with you. No, what is going to happen, is that you are going to go… elsewhere, and help the one who subverted your killer's will rectify a situation."

My brow furrowed. "What kind of situation? And for that matter, help who?"

He smiled at me angelically. "You know the answer to both of those questions. As soon as you get there, the answers will become clear to you."

Well that wasn't frustratingly unhelpful, or anything… "Fine, but if you'll remember, I died not too long ago. How will I be going much of anywhere? Hopefully not as a ghost."

He nodded. "A valid concern. What is going to happen, is that your soul will be brought to the body of another man that has entered a coma. That man's soul has already left his body, so it's currently vacant, I suppose you could say. You will use his body."

Oh. I didn't know that could happen. I mean, I've read the Dresden Files extensively, and know a lot about that universe. But I didn't know that a soul could move on without the body dying. I guess that makes sense, though. "All right…" I got suspicious though. "Um. I got to ask. Why me?"

Uriel hmmed at me in question.

"Why me? I mean, I'm sure that there are other, more qualified people to do something like this. Why am I the one who has to do it?"

Uriel lifted a finger. "I feel I should point out that you don't _have _to do this. It is your choice. But I have seen you act before. If you can help someone, you will. But, as for why you were chosen for this job?" He shrugged. "Well, it was your killer. He asked for you to be the one given this second chance at life. He wished to move on and face his judgement."

My killer wanted me to be resurrected? That's… generous. A lot of people out there would take the opportunity for themselves, and once they were up and moving again, they would think nothing of the task they were given. "That… seems a little suspicious, don't you think?"

Uriel shrugged again. "Your killer was a good man, all things considered. He was simply at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He wished to pass this chance to you, as a way of apology. I suggest you take it."

I furrowed my brow in thought. So, here I was, dead after a fire, talking to an archangel, who was offering me a second chance at life, so long as I help the person who got me set up my death with some sort of situation. Thinking about it like that, it sounded surreal. I mean, what were the odds that Jim Butcher got it right when he wrote those books. Actually, that brings up another question…

"Wait," I said. "Does me being here, talking to you, mean that the supernatural has been out there the entire time? Like how it's said in the books?"

Uriel bobbed his head in a "kinda-sorta" gesture. "It means that the supernatural as described by Jim Butcher does exist somewhere else within the realms of reality. Again, you will understand more when you get to where I wish to take you. Assuming, of course, that is what you decide to do."

I blinked. "That… that means that the multiverse theory is correct? Really?"

Uriel simply looked at me beneath his golden bangs.

I sighed. Well, for me, it wasn't really a choice to begin with. I mean, a second chance at life? Yeah, I'm going to take it. And be a bit more cautious around fires…

"Alright," I told the archangel. "What do you need me to do?"

He smiled at me, and reached out his hand. "Take my hand, and prepare yourself. There will be much that you have to learn and adapt to."

I took his hand.

* * *

When you get right down to it, life is hard. Dying is easy.

But coming back? That's agonising.

The first thing that I noticed about my second chance at life was that I was in serious pain. There was a bone deep ache that spread throughout my body, demanding that my brain send out endorphins to placate it. My muscles screamed at me when I tried to move my arm to grip the vice that was wrapping my forehead, and I was fairly sure that there was a sharp object sticking into me somewhere, and I could feel the odd sensation of parted skin as a slight throb with my heartbeat. Actually, that was another thing. Each time my heart beat in my chest, a small wave of ache shot through my atrophied body in an attempt to get oxygen to underdeveloped muscles. My lungs burned with each draw of my breath, and were wishing that I would stop, but all too aware as to what would happen if I did.

I tried to open my eyes, but my lids felt gummy and heavy. After multiple attempts to get them open, I finally did, only to shut them at the searing light that shone above me.

So, no using my eyes just yet. I'll have to take in what I can through the other senses.

Since my sight was out of the question, and my feeling was busy trying to kill me, I defaulted to my hearing. I noted the gentle beep of some nearby machine, a rhythmic sound that sounded familiar and soothing. The air around me smelled overly clean and od disinfectant. Hospital, then.

For the next while, I dedicated myself to trying to get my eyes to open without me flinching away from the light. I'm not sure how long I took trying to do that, but I eventually got myself to open my lids and take in the room. When I finally got them open, past the glaring intensity of the light above me, I awoke to the room around me.

It looked very much like a hospital room. A bed, which I was in, some chairs for visitors, some devices over yonder, and a window to my left that gave me a very interesting view. The walls were greyish blue, and looked very metallic. The lights over my head, I now realised weren't all that bright, once my eyes adjusted, and it gave the place a bit of a subdued, futuristic kind of look, in relation to the walls.

I tried to take in as many other details as I could, by my eyes kept shifting back to the window. Or, more accurately, to the view it gave.

Wherever I was, it was unlike any place that I had ever been. The view was gorgeous, showing an oddly curving landscape/city. I put that slash in there because there was a lot of nature used to accent and compliment the buildings. The ceiling (and I was definitely sure that it _was _a ceiling) was patterned to look like the sky in an open field on a beautiful summer day. The clouds moved across the ceiling, and there were very subtle changes in the lighting that made me feel that it was emulating a solar cycle. Up high in the sky were things, vehicles I thought, that zipped past, moving at speeds faster than I thought looked safe.

It all looked big, grandiose, and very, _very _futuristic. I suddenly knew that I wasn't in Kansas anymore, and it was more than a little frightening.

When Uriel said that I was going to go somewhere else, I thought he meant "somewhere else" as in the other side of the country! I hadn't the faintest clue as to where I was, but I sure as shit knew that it wasn't in any place in the twenty first century! I mean, just looking out the window, I could tell that _something _was different about where I was.

A door that I hadn't noticed _whoosh_ed open, (it was one of those future-y doors that the two halves slide into the ground and ceiling) and a girl walked in.

She couldn't have been much older than drinking age, around my age probably, and stood at maybe 5' 3". She had shoulder length dark brown hair that hung straight down, a pleasantly pretty face (a bit girl-next-door-ish), and soft brown eyes. Her strides toward me were quick, but not very confident, and the way she held this tablet looking thing in her hands seemed to suggest that she was a rather timid sort of person.

She looked up from the tablet in her hands and noticed me watching her. "Oh, my God," she said. Her voice was soft and gentle, and was the kind of voice that could sooth just about anyone. "You're awake!"

I tried to reply, but my voice only came out in a croaking groan, and my lungs chose that moment to start trying to hack themselves up. I coughed viciously, and the girl rushed to my bedside, put down her tablet thing, and handed me a glass of water that was on a bedside table.

"No," she said gently. "Um. Don't try to talk. You've been in a coma for a long time, and you'll hurt yourself."

I took the water and guzzled it. I handed the glass back to her, and said, "No, can do. smart mouthing is what I do, and I might die if I stop." My voice came out very hoarse, but it worked, and I wanted to get some info.

She looked at me in a bit of surprise. "Oh, wow," she said. "I wasn't expecting you to start talking so quickly."

I gave her a weak smile, saying, "I'm stubborn like that." I rubbed my forehead, my muscles moving in jerky motions and flaring in a bone achy pain. I flinched, arrested the motion, and rested my arm back to it's position at my side. I looked up at the girl. "So, uh. Where am I?"

"Huerta Memorial Hospital," she replied. "You were in a burning building about three years ago, and got hit very roughly in the head. You fell into a coma, and we couldn't seem to wake you." She looked down slightly, avoiding my eyes. "Sorry."

I got the feeling that this girl apologised for things that weren't her fault all the time. It was adorable.

I smiled at her. "Don't apologise. You didn't put me in a coma, and I'm awake now. That's what counts, right?"

She looked back up at me, her bangs slightly covering her brown eyes, and she smiled slightly. "Right," she agreed. Then she took a step back, and said, "I'll go fetch the doctor. He'll tell you about everything that happened since you went to sleep." She turned, and made her way for the door.

A thought occurred to me. I called after her, "Wait!" The increase in volume didn't go unnoticed by my body, and it immediately rallied against me, trying to get my lungs out of my throat. The girl turned to look at me. "What's your name?"

She looked a little surprised at the question, but then gave me a beautiful smile and said, "I'm Maggie."

I smiled at her, and said, "Pretty name."

She cast her eyes downward, blushed prettily, and managed to squeak, "Thank you," before she hurried out the door. I smiled after her.

Right, now that I had time to myself, I could go over my situation properly. My muscles were starting to calm down with the pain, and my eyes were adjusted fully to the light, so I'm as comfortable as I'm going to get.

So, I was sent here, wherever here is, to help fix a situation, whatever that situation is, with the person who caused my death, whoever that person is. Hell of a lot of unknowns in this situation, that's for sure. Uriel said that I would understand my situation once I got here, but now that I'm here, I'm still just as-

Someone walked through the door just then. It was… an alien, simply put. He had a slender frame, only three fingers, and orange amphibian skin. He wore what I can assume were doctors clothes, and had these odd oval-shaped things on his forearms. I recognised him. Not him specifically, but his species.

He was a salarian.

-con...fused…

* * *

So, after talking with the doc, I got my situation figured out.

Turns out that I'm in the Mass Effect universe. That's interesting, because I know that Mass Effect is a video game, but I've never personally played it. While I enjoy sci-fi and spaceships as much as the next guy, fantasy, particularly urban fantasy, always drew my attention more. That puts me in an interesting predicament, because, while I know what each story is about, and how they end, I don't know the in between. So, I'll just have to live life as though this is reality. Which it is.

Speaking of reality, turns out that my name is Michael Blackstone in this one. Not the name that mommy gave me, but if that's the name I've got to go by, I could do worse. Hell, I think that I might be a descendant of that magician with the last name Blackstone. Or maybe it's just a coincidence. But I feel that it's worth noting that the main character to the Dresden Files, Harry Dresden, had a middle name of Blackstone. Take that for how you will.

But back to the point. From what I know about the Mass Effect universe, there's some massive threat that's going to come about, Reapers, if I remember right, and that it's going to take everyone and their mothers to stop them. I might not know the specifics, but I know that I'm not going to sit idly by while the galaxy perishes around me. I'm pretty sure that's what Uriel wanted me to do in the first place.

So, to that end, I had to get better. When the doc had told me the extent of the damages to my body, I was a little overwhelmed. I mean, yeah I died, and yeah, this wasn't originally my body, but to know that I, or rather Blackstone, came so close to death was a bit scary. Dying isn't pleasant, even if you've done it before.

While my new body was in a coma, the muscles atrophied as expected, and there were several badly burned areas, mostly on my upper back and right shoulder, that needed to be healed. The odd thing about that was that, while I was out, the burns that I had sustained had healed remarkably. Sure, modern medicine can do some amazing things, but the way that my burns healed was something beyond that. If someone else with my burns had gotten the most extensive healing and therapy that money could by, it would still be less than what my body had healed on it's own. There was something about my body that healed me, not faster, but better than the average human.

I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but I'll get to that later.

Anyway, I still had to go to therapy for my weak muscles for about three months (I'll say it again: modern medicine can do amazing things. Healing atrophied muscles included). It would have been a much worse and far more grueling process were it not for the fact that Maggie, whose full name was Margaret Beck, was the nurse specifically assigned to help me through it.

Maggie was an amazing nurse, always gentle, always patient, and always there when I needed the help. Sometimes, when I was in my room at the beginning of therapy, I would try to reach for something, only to have my muscles flare up at me and sometimes even straight up fail. But after the second or third tries, Maggie would always find a reason to be in my room, and see me struggling to grab whatever it was that I needed. It was as though she were psychic or something. The fact that she always seemed to find a reason to smile, or was always blushing adorably helped things too (mostly my moral).

Not to say that the process was seamless and fun. There were more than a few embarrassing and humiliating moments to go around. But over all, my body healed at an incredibly faster rate than the average human. Most humans would be dealing with the therapy for at least five months. I was cut down to three because of my body's enhanced process.

Again, I'll get to that later.

But during the therapy, something happened that worried me. Or, rather, I noticed something that worried me. Here's how it went:

It was around the midpoint in my therapy process, where I could do things on my own without much help, but still needed to work on dexterity and strength. I was busy trying to lift some weights, when Maggie noticed something.

"Huh," she said, and roamed her hands across my right shoulder blade, an area that had been burned. "That's weird." If you're confused, I was shirtless at the time. Just to clear that up.

I put the weight down, and looked over my shoulder at her. "What? Find my scars sexy?"

The fact that she was roaming her hands across my back as I said that made her stop, pull her hand away and blush. It was something that I had gotten accustomed to doing; flirting with her to get her to react in various adorable ways. It helped keep a smile on my face. And hers, despite her best efforts.

"N-No," she murmured. "T-That's not what I meant." She gave me a mild glare that was negated but the blush on her cheeks. I simply smiled at her.

"So," I asked, "what is it?"

"There's a patch of unburned skin here," she told me. "I had read your chart, and it had mentioned it, but I had yet to see it for myself. It's… odd, is all."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Odd? How?"

"It's… in a shape. Kinda looks like an hourglass."

Alarm bells started to go off in my head. I mean, if archangels could be real, then maybe their equal opposites are too…

I tried to keep the worry off my face. I asked, "Can you get me a mirror? I wanna see."

"I can do one better," she said, and there was a flash of light. Then she sat next to me, rather than behind me, and showed me a picture on her omni-tool. Camera, then.

What I saw sent a shiver of worry and fear down my spine.

Maggie was right. There was a patch of unburned skin right in the middle of my shoulder blade. And she was right again, it looked vaguely suggestive of an hourglass.

But I knew what it was. It was angelic script for the name of Lasciel, the Temptress, the Webweaver, the Seducer.

A fallen angel.

Let me explain. I'm fairly sure that magic exists in this universe. Actually, I'm positive about that, but that's another story for a bit later.

Lasciel was one of thirty fallen angels to be trapped inside a silver coin (yes, _those _silver coins. As in, the reward Judas got for ratting out Jesus). A being literally older than time, with power and knowledge literally beyond mortal comprehension, she prided herself on the tempting and seducing of the mortals who touched her coin. It was what she did.

And in the Dresden Files books, the things that I base all my supernatural know-how on, Dresden had touched Lasciel's coin as well, and had her shadow, a small piece of her, inside his head, tempting him for years. Hell, he had been on the same boat as me, having her mark on his skin where there should have been burns, just like me (granted, he got them from a flamethrower. I got mine from a burning building).

So, that meant that I, or Blackstone, back then, had come into contact with Lasciel's coin at some point. That was the only way for something like this to happen. You need to come into skin contact with the coin for the shadow to be planted, and the shadow can do things like manipulate your skin cells to do weird shit like create her symbol.

It made me wonder: What kind of guy was Blackstone before I had taken up control of his body?

But the point was that there was now a fallen angel in my head, quietly tempting me, or soon will be, and I was only human. Lasciel would know exactly how to manipulate me into taking up her coin and selling my soul away. She had done it before, and the only person to deny her was Harry Dresden, wizard extraordinaire.

I'm not that good. I wasn't Harry Dresden.

I'm only human.

* * *

After that incident, my time in therapy went back to normal, and I kept my composure as best I could. There wasn't anything I could do to get rid of Lasciel's shadow just yet, other than putting down my magic, and I had no intentions of doing that.

Oh, wait. Did I forget that? Yeah, turns out I have magic from the Dresdenverse. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

I suppose the story of how I learned that I have magic would be prudent.

It was the very day that I had gotten out of the hospital. I had said goodbye to Maggie (who gave me a kiss on the cheek (score!)), gotten my things (a black and blue hoodie with a deep hood, suspiciously, a pistol, and a tarnished silver coin. I had everything else that was mine on me), and went out the door, wandering around, wondering just what it was that I was going to do with myself.

I had thought about that in plenty during my time in therapy, given that there was little else to do. I had thought about joining the military, but I'm not much of a military kind of guy. I knew that I wanted to be there, helping the main character of Mass Effect (Shepard, I'm almost positive) on the front lines. That's where I knew the real action would be. But I had no idea how to get my way into his/her crew. It was a bit beyond me, truth be told. Hell, for all I knew, the events of the games could have been years away, and I would have to wait for them to pop up before I could do anything.

I had decided to wander around after leaving the hospital to see if inspiration would strike me. It did, it the form of a pistol whip to the back of the head.

I dropped to the floor, clutching the struck area, blinking the stars from my eyes, when a batarian came into view, holding a very rusty and undermaintanenced gun, barrel pointed right at my head.

"Give up all you've got, human," he said. "Now!"

My response was a very polite, "Fuck off, shit head!" Then I kicked his leg out from underneath him.

He fell to one knee, grasping the leg that I kicked, and that gave me time to crawl away from him. He was recovering from the pain rather fast, but I had gotten a good bit of distance between us, and I was going for the gun that was in my hoodie pocket (not exactly inconspicuous, I know). We both had guns in this fight, and it was only a matter of who could get theirs out faster.

Sadly, there was still a little sluggishness from yours truly, and the batarian was first to lock his sights onto me.

I put my left arm in front of my face as an instinctive reflex of defense, and still drew my pistol to bare.

A shot rang out.

Half a second later, a second.

The batarian slumped to the ground, dead.

I blinked, noticing the lack of death on my part. I lowered my arm from it's defensive gesture, and looked around to see what happened.

The batarian lay face first into the ground, a pool of his own blood starting to gather around him. From the amount pouring out, I guess that I shot something vital, maybe a heart or something.

I checked myself for any injury, only to find that I had none. Either the batarian's shot had missed, or something stopped it mid flight. It was the latter.

The bullet lay less than half a foot away from me, flattened as though it had hit a hard surface. I stared at the bullet, confused, then found myself getting a massive headache. So that's it then. I've got magic. The first time you use magic, when your talents manifest, it's usually just raw, unfocused energy, and that lack of focus and discipline comes in the form of a huge headache.

A bullet stopped by an unseen force and that headache was enough evidence for me, really. I was convinced.

I'm a wizard, Harry.

* * *

When I found out that I had magic, I had to find out just how extensive my talent was. Over the next couple of days, while I wandered as aimlessly as a homeless man (to be fair, I was homeless), I would practice whatever kind of magic that I could think of. A lot of it didn't work, but I had expected that. Working with the primordial forces of the universe isn't something that you get to pick up after one use. It needs practice, and patience, and discipline, and focus. So, I kept at it.

Given that I was now a wizard, and probably the only one in the universe, I decided to take a page right out from Harry Dresden's book, and become a PI.

When I was in the hospital, one of the first of my belongings that they gave me was a credit chit, with a rather large sum. It wouldn't buy me a mansion any time soon, but it was enough to get me some property and food for a while, till I could get a job for myself. So, I bought myself an office that I could live out of for a while, then entered myself in PI schooling. Wasn't very hard. Just had to use your brain, a skill that seems to be more and more lacking these days. That schooling took about a month, before I was given my license.

I was walking down the street, a bag of goodies for me to eat in my hand, a pep in my step. Things were finally going to be in my control, something that I could dictate. I was at the head of this ship, and whether it crashed or stayed on course would all be up to my choice. My time in therapy was something like being a child, really, and the PI school was just a formality that I needed to abide by, if I wanted any business.

I approached my office door, smiling as I read the lettering on the glass.

_Michael Blackstone_

_Private Investigator_

_Wizard_

So the wizard part would drag in weirdos. But nothing worth doing is every easy.

My life in the near future was definitely going to be interesting. I had wizard studies to do, business to drag in, an invasion of super elite robots from deep space that want to destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, and a fallen angel in my head, tempting me with power that would no doubt cost my soul. I had my work cut out for me. It won't be easy. After all, the only easy thing, is dying.

But life? That's hard. And completely worth it.

* * *

**A/N: So, this is a thing that I'm doing... This is a story idea that I just couldn't get out of my head, and now here I am.**

**Anyway, I don't own the Dresden Files or Mass Effect. I'm not that cool. They go to their respective owners of Jim Butcher and Bioware. I recommend reading the book series, as it's awesome, and might give you a better frame of reference for this story, but I'm going to try to write it so you don't necessarily need to. If there's anything that confuses you, just shot me a message or something, and I'll answer to the best of my abilities.**

**So, comments and criticisms are appreciated- no, wanted. Feel free to go ahead and leave some.**

**Thanks For Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy.**


	2. The Irish Beauty

The following years passed by… not quickly, but actively. I was always doing something, whether it was magical study, working cases as a PI, or doing my homework about the galaxy around me. There was always something for me to study or read, or some missing person I needed to track down or lost object to find. I even got myself listed as a police consultant to C-Sec, in accordance with another wizard PI. Life was pretty good, all things considered.

My magical studies had advanced at an extremely fast rate. It took some time, and some discreet locations, but I was eventually able to drill enough discipline into myself to be able to cast some powerful evocations (evocations being the fast and explody magic, fireballs and lightning bolts and such). When I wasn't practicing how to blow stuff up, I was at my home/apartment meditating, focusing my ability to expand my skill in the subtler magics, such as tracking spells, veils, and glamours. While I found that my main skill lies in blowing stuff up, I always made sure to practice with the quieter magics, just to make sure my skills were rounded.

There was also the subject of finding out the extent of the supernatural community in this universe. I did some digging, met some people, and found that it was just as prevalent here than it was in the book series. There were all the monsters that I had read about, but I found no signs of any other wizards around. Either I was the only one, or the creatures of the night had gotten them. Most of the spooky crowd stuck to inhabited planets, rather than colonies or space stations. Places like Earth, Palaven, and Thessia, just to name a few, where there was plenty of space and plenty of prey. Of course, there weren't any figures in the spooky side that I knew from the books. Everyone was a different person. Constants and variables, and such.

Well, except for Lasciel. She was the same in this universe as she was in the other.

Yeah, Lasciel's shadow has made her appearance, and tried to tempt me into taking up the coin. I said no, obviously, and the bitch was all calm and courteous about it. I said no, and she simply nodded her head in understanding, and went away, back into the recesses of my head. Since then, she had popped up every now and then to offer me assistance and the coin, and I would try to shoot her down as often as possible. The shadow of Lasciel has a small portion of the true Lasciel's power, enough to tempt the host the shadow resides in, and shadow Lasciel had offered me what she could.

I would have thrown away her coin by now, but I wasn't confident that I would be able to do it properly, so that no one was able to come into contact with it. The fallen in the coins, which are called the Denarians, after the coins they are trapped in, are powerful beings that could turn a starved homeless man into a raging war beast. The power they wield and millions of years of experience make them extremely dangerous, if left in the wrong hands. The way I saw it, I might as well keep the thing, if only to prevent some poor Average Joe from becoming one of Lasciel's meat puppet.

But on lighter topics, my time as a PI has been as successful as one could hope. I started out doing small things like finding lost items, trailing people for info, and the occasional supernatural case, where I would need to banish something or other. Eventually, word of what I was doing found it's way to C-Sec, who had more than a few cases that seemed to make little to no sense whatsoever. They would send some cases my way, and I had gotten to be known as that weird but effective guy by the boys in blue, that PI with a gimmick. None of them had ever actually seen me work my magic, I don't think, so they immediately default to the opinion that I'm a nut. Frankly, they could think what they wanted, so long as I got jobs and got paid.

Life was simple, and I was enjoying the stability that that simplicity brought. Sure, there were times when things got hectic (like that time I had to find that kid, and accidentally burnt down a building (though C-Sec has no proof it was me, no matter what they say!)), and it could get weird (with the supernatural, that happens), but my magic studies, and the history lessons that I was giving myself were more than enough to give me peace of mind.

Of course, seeing as how the universe hates me, one day, shit got complicated.

* * *

It had been about four years since I woke up in that hospital. Things were going good, and that particular day had been a little slow, in comparison to some. I had a few errands to run, some people to meet up with, and a C-Sec detective had called my office, saying how he wanted to meet up with me to talk about a case.

I walked into my office, shut the door, looked at the person who was waiting for me, and said, "Garrus. You wanted to meet?"

The turain in question nodded.

I had met Garrus while on some of my cases. Things got weird, someone told me about it, and I went to investigate. Given that when spooky stuff happens, there's usually a body or two, C-Sec is also bound to catch wind of it. Garrus and I had crossed paths more than once, and we occasionally worked together to solve the cases that we couldn't do on our own. He came to me with the supernatural stuff that he got, I went to him when I needed more mundane help. He was a good guy to have at your back when things got rough, even if he didn't always believe that the paranormal existed (in his defense, he had never actually seen me use magic).

"I did," he told me. "There's something big going on. Have you heard about what happened at Eden Prime?"

"That colony that got sacked by those robots, or something? Yeah, it's all over the new. You won't find a station not talking about it right now." I tilted my head at him. "Why?"

"I got a feeling that a Specter, Saren, is the one responsible. I've got a lead, but Pallin shut the investigation down." He shrugged. "If I'm not going to get help from C-Sec, I figure that I might as well go at it on my own time. And with a case like this, I figure you might be able to help."

He figured that because, more often than not, I could always find something where he could not. Magic is great for that kind of stuff.

I thought about it. Specters, from what I read about them, seem to be seriously bad business. They were operatives sanctioned by the Council to have diplomatic immunity and a license to kill at the same time. When the Council had someone big that they wanted to get rid of, they sent a Specter after them, and the target would be taken care of. It sounds efficient, but the things is, is that more than a few Specters seem to be the type that have little to no care for collateral damage. They go in, blow shit up, kill innocent bystanders, and simply foot the bill to the Council, who wouldn't pay it anyway, given that they're essentially the main governing body in the galaxy. Specters took what they wanted, killed who they wanted, and paid little to no consequence for it, claiming that it was for the good of the galaxy.

If what Garrus said was true, that Saren, the top dog of Specters, had attacked and destroyed a human colony, then there would be a lot of Hell to pay, for the Council and Saren both. The Council because one of their chosen had gone rogue, and Saren because they, the Alliance and the Council, would start a manhunt after him. And given that Saren was a Specter, most of his movements were classified information, beyond the grasp of C-Sec's reach, even with a full investigation. He would be tricky to find, and if no one found him soon, he might do something else untoward.

So Garrus, finding that the investigation to find the Specter halted because of the Council's own protocols, he goes out of the Citadel's standard investigation process, and hires one wizard PI to help him out. Because said wizard has proven that he can find the unfindable before, and know the unknowable, and that he might be able to do something that C-Sec can't, given their red tape restrictions.

"Must be frustrating," I said to him. He crossed his arms and waited for me to continue. "To be sent off after a guy that you know did the crime, yet have the very same protocols from the people that sent you out stop you. That seems like a kind of insanity to me."

Garrus snorted in amusement. "Yeah, something like that." He sighed, and he clicked his mandibles in irritation. "If Saren really is the guy that took out that colony, then he has the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands, to answer for. Specter or not, justice needs to take it's course."

I nodded. "Alright, I'll help. If only because those colonists need someone to hunt down the bastard responsible." I may have seemed calm at the time, but when I had heard the news about Eden Prime, I was absolutely livid. To have so many people killed is just wrong, no matter your reason. If Saren was responsible, and I had no reason to disbelieve Garrus, then I'd personally tear off the shit head's arms and beat him to death with them.

"So, what's the lead?"

"A quarian apparently found some dirt on Saren. I'm tracking her down, and the last place that she was spotted was a clinic down in the Wards. We should go there, see if we can find the quarian, and if not, question the doctor."

I nodded. "Seems good. Let me just get my gear, and we can go."

Garrus leaned himself against my desk. "Be quick."

I loped over to a door to the side of the room, entered, and found myself in my small living area.

It really wasn't much. It was enough room for a bed, a couch, a kitchen area, and an entertainment center. It was small, with not too much room to move around in, and the furniture and appliances were cheap and easy to replace. My paycheque didn't really allow for me to spend on frivolous things, and any spare money that I had went into whatever wizardly implements that I could make.

The first of my wizarding tools of the trade were my "body armor", I guess you could call it.

It wasn't exactly standard issue gear. In point of fact, I got them at a clothing store. First was my long trench coat. It was a black coat made out of strong and thick synthetic material that I had woven intricate spells into. The thread that had been woven into the coat were all swirls and smoothly flowing lines, and were colored to be dark purple near the hem and slowly fade to a hellish red as it got closer to the collar. The odd part was that the thread had originally been black, and that once I had powered the spells that the threads designed, the colors gradually changed over time. The spells woven into the coat were meant to stop bullets and the like from tearing through me. I had even done some testing, and found that my coat would last longer under constant fire than most hardsuits today.

The next part of my armor was my hoodie, with an extra deep hood. I was already wearing that, and the only notable difference between it and the coat was that it was less heavy, more blue than black, and that the lines of the spell faded from red at the hem to purple at the top. Not sure why.

The third piece was a sort of cloth face mask that I had woven spells into as well. You ever play Watch Dogs? It was like the one the main character of that game wore, only with more personality.

I was going to make some spell-bound pants, but then I thought, "Well, might was well get with the times." I also had the thought, "That's a bit obsessive, don't you think?" So, I got some standard issue ceramic plate covered pants and boots.

When I wore the entire ensemble, and was in combat, I would flick my hood up, and pull up my cloth mask to protect my face. I like to think that it looked pretty cool (sure beats wizard robes and a pointy hat).

I threw all these clothes on, then moved onto my wizardly weapons of choice.

Now, when most people imagine a wizard, they see an old guy in robes carrying a staff as a focus. I had considered doing a staff, seeing as how it would make a good to to wrap people over the head with, but in this day and age, things needed to be compact to be inconspicuous. I could have also done a wand, but those are better suited for subtle magics than they are for blowing stuff up, and it took away that whole "physical weapon" aspect too, being so small and thin. So, I went with something that not only could I cast spells with, but also use as a weapon of its own, and hide effectively.

I had myself made a short sword. Or maybe it's a dagger.

It's a… very hard sword to describe. The pommel of the hilt was made into a dragon's head, the grip was strong synthetic material that was easy to get a good hold on, and the hilt curved down slightly into a knuckle guard that had spines pointing toward the blade, that gradually shrunk the farther down the line it got. The blade itself was polished steel (very effective against faeries) that waved noticeably, had a serrated back edge, and a flowing design that was inlaid gold on the flat of the blade. The intricate design were the very important runes on the blade that allowed me to cast spells through the thing easily. In total, the thing was about the length from my knee to my hip, give a few inches, and that's where I put it, on my right side. It was also conspicuously hidden by the length of my coat.

The next wizard's tool that I used for combat were my shield rings.

They were silver signet rings, each with the design of a shield on the face, alternating from the design of a medieval heater shield to a spartan style oval shield. Usually signet rings were a little thick (if you've worn one, you know what I mean), so I tried my hardest to make them as small as possible, so that I could easily move my fingers without something causing too much friction. I wore one on each finger of my left hand, and they were designed to work off each other, making it easier to cast a shield spell with each ring worn. If I were to lose one, the spell would require more energy to cast, but it would be subsequently less if I didn't have and focus for the spell.

I also had an M-6 Carnifex that I put in one of my trench coat pockets.

…

What? Just because I'm a wizard, doesn't mean that I have to use magic _all _the time. Besides, I've gotten very good at instinct shooting the thing with my left hand (good thing I'm ambidextrous).

I grabbed all my gear, put it all in it's respective places, then moved back out to see Garrus making for the door. He opened it, and Maggie was on the other side.

"Oh," she said, surprised to see that I wasn't the one to answer the door. "Um. Hello, sir. Is… is Michael here?"

"Over here, Maggie," I called out to her, waving over Garrus. She saw me and smiled. "Please, come in."

She did, and Garrus closed the door behind her. He shot me a look that said, "_We don't have the time._" I gave him a glare right back that said, "_Make the time._" Maggie was easily my best friend, and the world could wait while I talked to her, consequences be damned.

I turned my attention back to Maggie and said, "So, Mags. What can I do for you?"

Maggie and I had gotten pretty close ever since I left the hospital. We saw each other frequently and hung out with one another. At first, my intentions with the girl were less than platonic, but the more I got to know her, the more I became like an older brother for her, instead of a boyfriend. We would often go see movies together, get dinner and talk about work and life, and she would sometimes come over to help me when my burns started to act up on me (they did that sometimes). Often she would find herself on the end of unwanted male attention, and I didn't abide that. There was just something about the girl that made the protective instincts in me flare up, and I often had to resist the urge to pinch her cheeks and say, "Awww!"

"Um," she said. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go and get some lunch." She looked over at Garrus. "But, um. You've obviously got something going on. So, I'll just… go." She looked down dejectedly, clearly disappointed and sad, and all too adorable looking, and started to make her way for the door.

I took a step forward, wrapped my arms around her midsection, lifted her off the ground, and rested my chin on her shoulder. "Aw," I said. Nope, couldn't help it. "Don't look like that. You know I can't stand to see you sad." I pulled my head away from her shoulder, and looked her in the eye. She looked surprised, amused, and was flushed with embarrassment.

"How about this," I told her. "I've got a case to go on right now, but as soon as I'm done, we can go and get something to eat together. That sound cool?"

The flush on her face deepened when I looked her in the eye, and she smiled shyly at me. "U-Uh," she was stuttering. Her voice may have squeaked a little too. "O-Okay."

I smiled broadly at her, and gave her a noisy kiss on the top of her head. "Great! I'll be sure to call you!"

I put her down, and she gave me another one of those shy but happy smiles. She turned to the door and left, a definite pep in her step. I watched her go, satisfied.

I turned back to Garrus, and saw him staring at me. "Um," he said. "What was that?"

I pursed my lips for a moment, thinking. "That was Maggie," I said after a moment. "Anyway, don't we have something to do?"

"Yeah," he said. "Let's go."

* * *

We made our way to the clinic. When we got to the building, there was a small window that looked into the clinic itself. I got a brief glimpse of something inside.

"Woah, hey." I motioned to Garrus. "Look in there, man."

He walked over next to me, and looked where I was pointing in the window.

Inside the clinic were three men and a woman. The men were tossing the woman around, throwing her every which way. One of them roughly threw the woman to the ground, and the thugs started talking to her, clearly trying to intimidate her. Honestly, the whole ordeal reminded me of grade school bullying. The guys were clearly amatur muscle, two bit thugs who thought they were tough, but they were bigger and stronger than the woman. She was obviously terrified.

Garrus swore something in turian. "We need to go, now."

He moved to storm the door, his talons moving for his pistol, but I stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait," I said. "Let's go at this a bit slower, try some subtlety."

He gave me a look. "We don't have time, and the only way into the clinic is through that door." His mandibles click. "Just how do you plan to do something," he used air quotes, "subtle?"

I gave him a small smile. "I don't call myself a wizard for no reason, you know." I motioned for him to follow. "Stick close. I'm not the best at veils." He gave me an odd look, but followed.

I positioned myself near the door, then turned back to Garrus. "When we get in there, get behind cover as soon as you can. I won't be able to hold this for very long." Again, odd looks were passed my way.

I went back to looking at the door, and focused my magic, preparing to cast illusion magic.

Illusions are complex bits of magic that alter the perceptions of people around you. There are ways to make you completely invisible, slightly transparent, or to make you seems just utterly boring and insignificant, making people look right over you. There are also ways to create images to convince people that one things is happening, even though it isn't, while something different is. You could create the image of a dog, make it bark, and scare away a cat, even though the dog was never there to begin with. Illusions are helpful, but difficult little tricks.

I was going to cast a veil and alter the image of the door so that, when it opened, it looked and sounded like nothing had happened. The way that you would go about that is by doing the two different spells at the same time. Kinda like writing two different stories with either hand.

I brought forth my will, my magic, created the image of what I wanted in my mind, and whispered the word, "_Slør._" There are no real magic words. You simply use the words to hold the magic, and you have to use a word that isn't already associated with something in your mind already. That's why it's best to use different languages that you don't know much about.

The magic left with the word and wrapped around Garrus and I, turning us completely invisible, with the side effect of putting a slightly darker tint to the world around us, like a filter. The next part was the most difficult part. Making the second spell, all while keeping the first up.

Instead of making a completely separate image for the second spell, I instead altered the first image to include an invisible crime fighting duo _and _ a door that stays closed. Then I whispered the word, "_Bilde._"

"Garrus," I said to the turian. My words came out a little slowly, as I needed to focus on the spell, and talking is a great distraction. "Open the door."

He didn't say anything for a moment- given that he just saw a man utterly disappear, it's understandable- but I heard his heavy footsteps move to the door. He hit the button and waited a moment. Then, he whispered whispered, "It didn't open."

"No, no. Go through." I moved to where I thought he was, flailed my hand for a moment, then found a hold on his shoulder. I then pushed him roughly through the door, and followed quickly after.

I stepped through the image of the door, and stepped into a rather small, very basic clinic. There was a counter immediately in front of the door, and behind it there was a room that went off to the right with beds and medical equipment strewn about. The men and woman were a few feet behind the counter.

I crouched down behind the counter, letting the veil around me and Garrus, and the false image of the door, dissipate. I looked at Garrus, silently conveying a message to him: We need a plan.

He made some vague hand gestures that I took to be, "_Get behind them as a distraction, then let me take the shot._" That plan sounded perfectly fine to me, so I nodded, whispered, "_Slør,_" and disappeared from sight. I saw Garrus shake his head in wonder, still not completely used to the idea that I could use magic.

I snuck my way quietly past the thugs, farther into the clinic. I just stood there for a moment, facing them, and watching them bully this woman into telling them what they want. I don't like it when people get hurt, except from two bit asshole like this, and I like to make it my business to prevent any similar incursions on my city and it's people (Well, technically it's a space station, but whatever).

I was just about to drop the veil when the clinic door opened up and three people stepped in in a loose triangle formation. Or maybe it was a "V"...

The first one, a man on the right back tip of the formation, was about average height and of a strong, athletic build. He wore a black set of hardsuit armor, and had his hair in a very Evis-like fashion. His features were hard and defined, definitely something a lot of women would be interested in.

Across from him was a woman, wearing a set of white and pink armor, and had her dark hair pulled back in a loose bun on her head. Her nose was a bit too long and her chin just a bit too sharp for her to be outright pretty, but the way she held herself certainly made her a striking woman.

The woman spearheading the group was someone that gave me pause.

She was about 5' 7", and had the kind of body that most women would stab you in the eye for. Repeatedly. Flared hips, a well-build waist, a generous chest; the very picture of an hourglass figure. She had full, slightly red lips that looked inviting and very, _very _kissable. Freckles framed her cheekbones and crossed over her nose, right under vibrant green eyes, and she had a head of mid-neck length, full and beautiful fire red hair. Saying this woman was pretty would be like saying the sun was a bit toasty; it's a _massive_ understatement. And this was in _combat armor_. I had no doubt that, if she were trying, no heterosexual, red-blooded male would be able to tear their eyes away from her.

And the thing was, it wasn't that that made me pause when I looked at her (though it certainly made it pleasant).

What gave me pause was her stance, her presence, her aura. When she stood in that room , there was no doubt in my mind that she could damn well take everyone in there in a fight (well, maybe not me, but I had magic, and I cheat all the time). She cast her gaze around the room, her eyes so intense that the shadows almost seemed to cower away from her look. And when her eyes landed on the thugs, one of whom was grabbing the doctor-lady and was using her as a meatshield, they got a sudden, intense, and almost tangible fire to them. It was as though what that thug did had just set into motion events that could not be prevented, and that would ultimately end in his demise. The woman's ire was almost like a force of nature in it's simplicity and ferocity.

The thug that had grabbed the doctor said, "Who the Hell are you?!", and it was enough to snap me out of my thoughts.

I turned to the two thugs that were pointing their weapons at the group of people, dropped my veil, drew my short sword/focus and drew in my will, shouting, "_Kraft!_"

A wall of unseen force lashed out at the goons, throwing hard into the nearby wall. They were startled by my sudden appearance, and that had caused them to loosen their grip on their weapons. The force spell was enough to cause the guns to be thrown away from them, a distance away from where they were sprawled on the floor.

I quickly drew out my Carnifex from one of my coat's massive pockets, and quickly executed the both of them. Garrus, by that time, had popped out of his cover and shot the thug holding the doctor.

The doctor dropped to her knees, clearly shaken. And considering that Garrus was talking to the vision of a woman (who was currently chewing his ass out for endangering a civilian), I went to make sure the doctor was fine.

"Ma'am?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

She pushed herself up off the floor and gave me a bit of an unsteady smile. She had obviously been scared, but for her to bounce back this quickly was rather impressive.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said. Her voice had a bit of an accent to it. Canadian-French, maybe?

I nodded. "Good. Now, I'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's alright with you."

She smiled at me again. "Of course."

"First," I started, "I'd like to know your name, please. I'd rather not call you 'ma'am' during this whole conversation."

She gave me an amused tilt of her mouth. "I would rather that not happen as well. I am Dr. Michel."

I offered my hand out to her, which she shook. "Michael Blackstone. A pleasure to meet you." I got back on topic. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, I need you to tell me anything you know about a quarian patient that you recently treated in this clinic."

Dr. Michel thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, I remember her. She came in here with gunshot wounds- polonium rounds, if I remember. I treated her as best as I could, and she told me about how she came to be injured." She relayed the tale that the quarian had spun for her, from getting the info on Saren from a geth (must be the name of those robots that attacked Eden Prime), to being hunted down and shot, to stumbling into the clinic. Whether this story was true or not has yet to be seen, but Michel didn't strike me as much of a liar.

Yeah, I know it sounds cynical, but being a PI has taught me to never trust another person's word implicitly, unless you know the person. When you get to it, people will tell the most ridiculous lies under duress, and it's my job to figure out the fact from fiction.

"I knew that there was a man by the name of Fist that worked for the Shadow Broker, and I recommended that she seek him out. She might be able to get protection from him for her infomation, you know? Anyway, I was going to get more medical supplies to treat the quarian better, but when I returned she had disappeared."

I pursed my lips, thinking about my next question. Then, an idea struck me, and I had to resist the urge to smack myself in the head for not instinctively asking this question sooner.

"Doctor, this may seem like an odd question, but do you happen to have any of the quarian's blood on hand? Maybe a vial that you used for tests, or a rag that you used for cleaning up?"

She looked at me as though I had started speaking in tongues, but nodded, and pointed at a nearby biohazard disposal bin.

I made my way over there and rummaged through. I found a rag that had oddly colored blood on it, still damp. I smiled as my plan came together.

"Thank you, doctor." I said to her. "If you ever need anything, you be sure to call me, okay?"

She nodded. "I should be the one thanking you. But I'm happy to help."

I gave her one last nod and a smile, then went over to Garrus, who looked properly scolded. The goddess-amongst-us-lesser-men turned her scowl towards me, and it was all I could do not to stare at her.

"And just who are you?" She asked. Her voice was firm and commanding, yet beautiful and suggestive. There was also a slight hint of an Irish accent in there, as well.

"Uh. Michael Blackstone, ma'am."

The other, less awe inspiring woman snorted. "You mean you're that nut job that goes around calling himself a wizard?"

I sighed. I rubbed the bridge of my nose with a thumb and forefinger, and mumbled, "It's so nice to have fans…"

The vision turned to what I guess was her squad mate. The whole group had a rather military look about them. "Ash, you know this guy?"

Ash, which I assumed was short for Ashley, rolled her eyes. "Yeah. This guy is a private investigator here on the Citadel. Says he's a wizard, and goes around trying to solve a lot of unsolvable cases. I've only heard of him, but from what I've gathered, he's a loon." The red-headed beauty turns back to me and folds her arms, an eyebrow raised in question.

I shrugged. "Everyone's got to be something, right?" I then made my way past them and out to the exterior of the clinic, reaching into one of my pockets as I did so.

"Hey," that accented voice called back to me. "We aren't done talking!"

I noticed the entire group follow after me when I stepped out, two women, the man, and Garrus. "Fine," I said over my shoulder. "But we can talk while I work. I've got a lead on that quarian, and I need to act before this blood goes dry." From the depths of my pocket, I drew out a folded metal ring, about three feet in diameter. I snapped the thing into shape, then set it on the ground. I stepped into the circle, brushed my hand across it's circumference, and willed the magic circle closed.

The bombshell of a woman was about to say something else, but when I closed the circle, she stopped in place, got a weird look in her eyes, and looked around her, seemingly searching for something.

I looked up at her. "What? Something wrong?"

She looked at me, a certain confusion in her eyes, and said, "There was this… snapping sensation, just a second ago. Don't tell me I'm the only one who felt that?" She looked around at the other people around her, her squadmates and Garrus, and they all shook their heads.

I furrowed my brow. That's… odd. That snapping sensation she's talking about was the feeling of the circle around me being closed, getting cut off from the rest of the magical energies around. I felt it too, and do every time I close a circle. If she could sense the circle closing, then maybe she was a practitioner of magic. Or maybe something else.

I didn't voice these thoughts, however, and instead, just replied, "I felt it too. That's the magic circle I'm standing in closing."

She shot me a look that clearly said she thought I was insane. I know what that look is like. I get it all the time.

"Anyway," I moved back on topic. "You said that we aren't done talking. So talk. Just don't be insulted if I don't have my whole attention on you. This stuff requires focus." I sat down in the circle, crosslegged, and drew out an old compass. The thing didn't work here on the Citadel, given that there wasn't a magnetic north to the place, so the needle simply wobbled aimlessly around.

"You said that you're a PI here on the Citadel," she said. "Are you investigating the case on Saren?"

I nodded, my eyes down on the compass as I popped the glass of the top and unscrewed the needle from the center. "Yeah," I said, "I was hired by Garrus over there to help him investigate this lead." I brought the needle over to the blood stained cloth, and pressed the tip against the wet spot, coating the tip of the needle in as much blood as I could. I examined it and saw that there was a sufficient enough amount of blood on there, and put the needle back onto the center of the compass. "I've always had a gift for find lost people, and figuring out things that I really shouldn't, so it made sense as to why Garrus came to me." That, and because he really had nowhere else to go for help, but I let myself indulge my ego a bit.

"And just what's your stake in this, then?" The woman asked.

I placed two fingers near the tip of the needle, close to the blood, and drew forth my magic, pushing it through my fingers and into the needle and blood. I whispered the word, "_Søke_." The magic left me and ran into the needle, giving it power. It spun around wildly on it's balance, and I got up and stepped through the circle's border, breaking the containment of energies. The needle then suddenly snapped into a direction, and I smiled in satisfaction. A good, old fashioned tracking spell. Always reliable.

I looked back up at that the gorgeous woman and said, "I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't hear."

She narrowed her eyes at me, and her squadmates looked about ready to jump me, as though I had insulted the redhead or something (I took that to mean that the redhead was the lead of their little squad). The woman said, with irritation, and a heavier Irish accent (it must get thicker with intense emotions), in her voice, "What is your stake in this? Why try to find Saren? What's your reason?"

I looked her in the eye for a brief moment, then focused on her nose. Wizard's, that meaning me, had the ability to do something called a Soul Gaze. If the person you locked eyes with was a mortal and had a soul, then you saw that person in their most base form, for what kind of person they were. There was no hiding yourself from a wizard when he looked onto your soul. They saw you for what you were, at your most basic level, never to be forgotten or fade with age. One of the downsides to this, though, is that when the wizard sees your soul, you see them right back. It's a two way street, and often times, very intense for both parties.

I didn't want to see the soul of this woman, mostly because I considered it to be very rude to do so without her permission. But also because there were other people who had looked into my soul and had very… different reactions.

One person immediately fell to their knees, crying, and started to beg for their life.

Another shouted "I don't believe in Hell!", and tried to kill me.

My soul must have been an intense place for reactions like that to happen.

But all this is off topic.

"My reason, besides for the fact that Garrus hired me to help him?" I asked. I shrugged. "I heard about what happened to Eden Prime. I was going to do what I could to find the asshole responsible anyway. Garrus just made it convenient by showing up at my office. Those colonists were slaughtered like cattle. Anyone who's ready, willing, and able to do something like that needs to be stopped." My thoughts instantly went to Lasciel, the imprint of the fallen angel in my head.

She was the kind of being that would do something like that, for her own reasons.

And the fact that she would have to use someone like me to be able to achieve those ends was startling.

Even scarier, some people would do it _willingly_.

There was a distant feminine laugh in my head that I knew no one else could hear. I shivered slightly.

"It's stuff like that that needs to be prevented above all else," I continued. "If we can't protect those that are innocent, then all that's left are the murderers, thieves, rapists, and all the other horrible people out there. I'm not okay with that."

The woman looked at my face, searching for the honesty, I think. After a moment, she smiled slightly and held out her hand for me to shake. "You may be crazy, but I know a good man when I see one. I'm Commander Kyla Shepard." She pronounced her first name "kie-la". Must be Iri-

Wait.

Did she say Shepard?

I think she did.

Oh, _let the games begin_.

I smiled at the Irish beauty. "Michael Blackstone, but I already told you that. Now, I take it you're involved with the investigation with Saren, right?"

She nodded and motioned back to her other crew members. "We were there when it got attacked. Ashley lost her whole unit trying to defend against the geth."

I nodded. I looked to the other woman, and said, "My condolences, for what it's worth." I turned back to Shepard. "Now, we need to find this quarian, before this lead gets cold."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at me. "And just how are we going to find said quarian?"

I smiled and held up the compass in my left hand.

Shepard looked unimpressed. "You're going to find the quarian with a compass? On a space station? Which has no magnetic north, thus making the compass null and void anyway?"

"Nope," I said, smiling. "I'm going to find her with magic."

Ashley narrowed her eyes. "You can't be serious."

I looked at her. "Indeed, I can." I addressed the group at large. "Look, finding lost people is something of a specialty of mine, as I've said. If you follow me, and I turn out to be a complete basket case, then all you've done is waste a few minutes and humor a madman. But if you come with me, and I end up finding her, then we've got her faster than we could have before." I looked around at everyone. "There really isn't a losing scenario here."

Garrus clicked his mandibles. "Well, I did hire you. It would be stupid to do that and not trust your word on something like this."

The Commander looked a bit skeptical, and Ashley outright said, "We don't have the time for this!" She started to walk away.

The man, who had yet to say anything up to this point, stopped her with a hand and said, "Ash, think about it. He's got a point. He must still be in business for a reason." He looked at me. "You are still in business, aren't you?"

"Not unless they foreclosed me within the past twenty minutes I've been away from my office."

The man nodded. "The nut has a point when he said there was no downside." I would have taken offense to being called a nut, but I've been called worse. Hell, I've been called worse _today alone_, let alone any other day.

Ashley stared daggers at the man for a half minute, then said, "I'll stay if the Commander does. If not, I'm gone." She pointed a finger at me, switching the target for her sharp gaze. "_You _are a psychotic _freak_, and I'm not going to trust your word for a _second_."

Ouch. That one was new.

I turned to the Commander. "What's the survey say, pretty lady? You going to come with the weirdo, or go off on your own leads?"

She stared at me searchingly. Then she said, "I'm with Kaiden on this one. No real downside, here." She got an amused smirk on her face. "Besides, he called me pretty. Now I just _have _to see if he's the real deal."

I smiled broadly at them all. "Great!" I spun around on my heel, and referred to my compass. I pointed in the direction where the compass was pointing, and said, "Now, come along, children! Follow the wizard!"

And we went off to find the quarian. The mad wizard, the sexy commander, the disgruntled cop, the grumpy survivor, and the quiet voice of reason.

What a team we make.

* * *

**A/N: Welp, there it is. Chapter 2. As predicted, I don't own Mass Effect or the Dresden Files. That goes to Bioware and Jim Butcher, respectively.**

**So, if any of you are wondering, there is actually a reason that I've made the good Commander so picturesque in her beauty. I'm not going to say what it is, as that would ruin the surprise, but if you want to take a guess, feel free.**

**Anyway, I've got some kinda bad news. I'm currently on vacation. That means that I had to leave behind my xBox, which I use to increase accuracy in the story. It's also been a while since I've played Mass Effect fully, and I want to make this as accurate as possible, while adding my own spin on things. I'll be back home by the end of the week, and I'll write whatever I can for the next chapter, but it more than likely won't be out until next week, maybe later depending on my laziness.**

**But that's about it, really. I'll do what I can for you all, but sometimes vacation can be a bad thing in some matters, while being a good thing in others.**

**If you've got any questions, comments, concerns, or criticism, feel free to leave a review. It's my heroin.**

**And as always,**

**Thanks For Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy **


	3. Arson in the Wards

We followed the way the tracking spell showed us. Well, I followed it, and the others followed me. We were led to a back alley, behind the marketplace down in the Wards. It was a dark, dingy sort of place, perfect for any sort of dark business. No through traffic, far enough away so that nothing might be heard, and dark enough that no one would intentionally stick around, unless they had business.

We weren't the first to find the quarian. Three others, two salarians with helmets covering their faces, and a turian, were already confronting the quarian girl. I was at the head of our little band of misfits, so I saw them all first. I motioned for everyone to get down and be quiet, and we listened in.

The turian spoke first. "So, you have the data?" He was getting uncomfortably close to the quarian, and started to put his hands on her, caressing the side of her mask and down her arm. This tipped me off that something was about to go down, and I flicked up my hood and pulled on my mask, getting ready.

"Where's the Shadow Broker?" The quarian asked. "Where's Fist?" She seemed irritated by the turian's touching, but made no move to stop him. Yet.

"They'll be here," he replied. "Now, where's the data?"

The quarian seemed to think for a moment, then shoved the turian's roaming talon off her. "No, the deal's off."

The turian narrowed his eyes, clearly irritated, and motioned for his salarian buddies to move onto the girl. For her part, the quarian backed away from the three, reached into a pouch on her suit, and threw something onto the ground in front of the salarians.

There was a sudden explosion at their feet, knocking them to the ground, and dropping their shields. Now was the time we entered the fray.

I stood up, drew my dagger in my right hand and my pistol in my left, aimed the former at the turian, and yelled, "_Kraft!"_ The wave of kinetic energy threw him a good fifteen feet away, to the other end of the alley.

I aimed my pistol at one of the salarians, who were just starting to get up, and quickly shot him dead. The second salarian was taken out by a sniper round from Garrus' rifle.

For their part, Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan drew a bead on the turian I threw to the other end of the alley. The guy's shield was strong, and it gave him enough time to get up, aim his shotgun right at me, pull the trigger, and dive for cover.

The pellets from the shotgun slammed into my chest, knocking me to the ground gasping for breath. The shot had hit me right in the lungs, and the air was knocked right out of them. The speed the bullets were traveling wasn't enough to pierce my coat (short of a high explosives grenade, nothing would), but was enough to cause so serious pain. The coat was meant to stop rounds from entering my soft flesh, but even if they didn't enter, they were still moving multiple times the speed of sound.

"_Do not worry, my host,_" a woman's voice from inside my head said. "_It was not grievous. If you would allow, I would gladly relieve you of the pain._"

I must not have been thinking straight (getting buckshot to the chest will do that to you), because I nodded, taking the fallen angel's offer of anesthetics.

"_Relax,_" Lasciel said. "_Simply breath deeply, and relax the focus in your mind. I shall handle the rest._" I did, the moron that I am, letting the barriers that I had put in place inside my head become lax, letting the demon do her work.

Moments later, and the pain disappeared, letting the endorphins in my body take a break. I blinked my eyes from the sudden feeling of not-pain, and stared up to see a worried Shepard kneeling over me, her hand running over my chest, where I knew I had been shot.

I sat up, and brushed her hand away gently. She scowled at me. "You need to stay down," she said, command in her tone. "You've been shot."

I smirked from underneath my mask. When I spoke, my voice was a bit strained from the previously felt pain. "Yeah, I know. I was there, if you'll remember. But look." I gestured at my chest. "No entry wounds."

She looked at my chest, her scowl somehow turning disbelieving. "How the Hell…"

I pulled down my face mask, rolled my eyes at her, and gave her a playful smirk. "Magic. Duh. It's like I keep telling you."

She stood up, her face still disapproving, but not out right scowling anymore. From my position, on my ass, it was a very nice view, looking up. "It could be some kind of experimental fabric, meant to replicate kevlar from way back when, only stronger and better."

I rolled my eyes, and stood up. "And where would I get that kind of tech, huh? I'm a PI, not a business tycoon." Honestly, sometimes you'd think that the explanation of 'it's magic!' would be easier to swallow than some of the things I've heard.

When I got back to my feet, I cast my eyes over to the turian that had shot me, to see that he had properly been ventilated with buttles. It also allowed me to see two more assassins come from around the corner, drawing their weapons.

Whatever Shepard was going to say next was cut off by the rattling of one the turian's assault rifles. Everyone instinctively crouched closer to the ground. A few stray bullets hit Ashley and Kaidan's shields, but it wasn't enough to drop them. We all took aim with our respective weapons, ready to return fire.

We needn't have bothered.

There was a blur of motion, too fast for the eye to see, and one of the turians fell to the ground, his head completely ripped off. The head, which was being held by that blur of motion, was thrown at the other turian, knocking him off balance. The blur pounced onto him, and simply tore him in half with an awful combination of cracking, screeching, and screaming.

I recognised the threat before everyone else, and took a step forward, dropping my pistol, and drawing a necklace from around my throat, wrapping it quickly around my hand. I forced my will down it's length and into the pendant that had a moving picture of a nebula on it. A brilliant silver white light shone from the necklace, surrounding me and blocking the path of the walking corpse in front of me.

The blur stopped right at the edge of the light, and a terrible stench of death and rotting corpse filled the air.

The man that stood in front of me wasn't a man. It used to be one, sure, and it looked like one in only the vaguest sense, but there was no mistaking a Black Court vampire for anything else.

The corpse looked like it might be a century old, with all the rotten and dried flesh that covered it's body. It was thin and bony, the bones clearly defined along the skin. It had very thin, very wispy hair that was missing more patches than it had. The clothes it wore were from the 20th century, and were dirty and tattered. Cold, hatefilled, and utterly dead brown colored, yellow sclera eyes stared at me in naked contempt.

"Wizard," it rasped, it's voice full of rust and cobwebs. "I have no quarrel with thee. Release the covered one to me, and I shall not contest thee this day."

"Malik," I said, recognising the vampire. "I will do no such thing. If you seek the quarian, you will have to go through me first."

There was a sound similar to a bowstring being run across dead snake skin; Malik laughing. "You have little power over me, little mortal. You are the last of your kind, and doomed to be hunted for the remainder of your short and pathetic life." The corpse's lips peeled up, skin flaking off, and it sneered at me. "Now, release the covered one, and you may yet live another day."

I smirked at it. "If I had no power over you, why haven't you come to take her yet?"

The corpse had no response.

I narrowed my eyes dangerously, and the scent of sulfur and brimstone filled the air. A gentle fire light and smoke started to emanate from the runes on my dagger; the effects of Hellfire, the destructive force of Hell, running through it. Another 'gift' from my resident fallen angel. "Now, I will only say this once. Leave in peace, on your word, right now, and I will not hunt you for a year and a day. Continue this choice of action, and I will flay your emaciated ass where you stand."

The vampire knew what Hellfire smelled like, and it instinctively took a step back. Black Court vamps, like their Red counterparts, are not very partial to fire, and Hellfire was the most devastating kind.

"Your word," it said, after a moments thought. "By your power, that you will not seek me out for a year and a day. If your word is given, so shall be mine." He didn't feel like testing his mettle against the literal forces of Hell, it would seem.

I nodded. "My word, by my power, that, so long as you or your scourge do not hunt these people, and leave in peace, I shall not do the same to you for a year and a day." There was a tingling sensation as the promise was made. Swearing by one's power is as close to a verbal contract is you can get, for a wizard. If you break the promise, then a portion of your magic is taken away from you. It's small, at first, but it eventually adds up, and you could lose your power all together.

Malik was clearly displeased that I included it's scourge (a group of Black Court vamps, like a gaggle of geese, or a murder of crows) into the deal, as indicated by the scowl that graced it's face. But, it said, "And my word, that I will not hunt these mortals, for a year and a day, so long as you do the same to me."

I smirked, satisfied, and nodded. "Now, scat. You have no business here, you walking sack of flesh."

It's scowl deepened, but it slowly backed away from me and the others. After it was out of sight, I waited for a few moments, just to be safe. Then I stopped feeding my will into the amulet, put it back on, and went to retrieve my pistol. When I got it, and looked up to see everyone staring at me.

"What?" I asked. "Something on my beautiful face?" Never let it be said that I'm not modest.

"What-" Ashley began.

"How-" Garrus added.

There was a pregnant moment of silence, then Shepard broke it by voicing everyone's thoughts. "What the fuck was that?"

I gave the Irish beauty a smile and said, "That was Malik, a Black Court vampire."

"A… vampire…" Ashley said slowly, as though the word was foreign to her.

I nodded. "One of the older ones here on the Citadel. He came here about the time the First Contact war ended, and set up shop. I've been meaning to rout him out for a while now, but I guess that'll have to wait."

"That was a vampire?" Kaidan asked. "Where were the fangs?"

"You're thinking of the Red Court of vampires. _They're _the ones with the fangs and hunger for blood." I looked around at the humans of the group. "Any of you read _Dracula_, by Bram Stoker?" Ashley and Shepard nodded. "Well, the Black Court are what he based baby Vlad on. Stakes to the heart, decapitation, fire, holy water, garlic. That kind of vampire."

"So…" Garrus started. "Not only are wizards real, but also beings from human mythology? And we just met one?"

I bobbed my head a little. "Well, there aren't any books about Malik, but if you mean vampires in general, yeah, they are, and yeah, you did. Vampires aren't as common as faeries, but there are enough around that they certainly make an impression."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, and I felt a little sad for them. I mean, yeah, all of them, aside from the quarian, were soldiers that were trained killers, but they were just hit over the head with just how _big _the galaxy really is. They could go one of two ways here. They could either accept that the supernatural is real, and that every mortal species wasn't even close to the top of the food chain, or they could deny that it existed, and continue to live in blissful ignorance of what was really around them. Most people chose the latter of those two options, but those who went with the former had to kiss their innocence goodbye. These soldiers had lost most of theirs already, I knew, but there was still that remainder left. Their introduction to the freaky side was the darker and scarier bits of it, not the parts that make me love my job. It always made me sad to see that innocence go.

"The galaxy," Shepard said quietly. "Just got a _whole _lot bigger, didn't it?"

"Yeah," I said softly and apologetically. "It did. Look, for now, just put it out of your mind. We still have some things to do. But if you have questions later, which I know you will, I'll be willing to answer as many as I can."

Shepard shook her head, tousling her flame red hair. "He's right. We can feel small and insignificant later. Right now, we have a rouge Specter to hunt." Her voice had the confidence it had lacked moments ago, and it was enough to galvanize the others to move on, and deal with their intro to the supernatural later.

"Aside from Michael over there taking buckshot to the chest and getting back up, is anyone hurt?" She looked at the quarian. "You, miss?"

"I know how to look after myself," the quarian responded. "Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you people, anyway?"

"My name's Shepard. That's Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, and Michael." She gestured to all of us, respectively. "We're looking for evidence that Saren is a traitor."

The quarian nodded. "Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here. We need to go someplace safe."

"The ambassador's office," Kaidan offered. "It's safe there. He'll want to see this anyway."

I put up a finger. "Yeah, one problem with that. Fist tried to get this quarian killed. The Citadel won't be safe for her, and by extension us, until he decides to stop hunting us."

Shepard looked at me, a fire red brow lifted slightly. "Explain."

I shrugged. "Well, he did try to kill us just now, by sending those assassins after…" I blinked, and looked at the quarian. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she offered.

"After Tali here," I continued. "It stands to reason that, if he's willing to do it once, he's willing to do it again. It would make it better for us in the future if we took care of that loose end before it trips us." Not to mention the fact that there was a Black Court vamp getting involved in mortal affairs, something that doesn't happen very often. I needed to see if this chump was responsible. If he was, all the more reason to put him down.

Shepard thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, seems smart. Anyone know where to find this Fist?"

"Fist runs Chora's Den, here in the Wards," Garrus said. "It's not too far from here."

Shepard nodded. "I remember." With that, she took the lead, taking us right to the beasts Den.

* * *

Fist must have been expecting some kind of trouble, because as soon as we opened the doors to the club, bullets started to fly.

There wasn't really a lot of cover right there at the entrance. You could either stick to the sides of the entrance door, or move up and hunker down behind the bar. The latter wasn't the best option, seeing as how there was a tug with a pistol right behind it, the bartender, probably.

The bartender, however, couldn't do much damage, as he received a blast to the chest from Kaidan's shotgun. "Moving in!" He shouted, then ran to get below the bar.

I spotted movement on the raised centre stage, and saw a man with a poorly kept together assault rifle take aim.

I raised my dagger from it's hip sheath, pointed it at him, and shouted, "_Kraft!_" Unseen force lashed out from the knife's tip and threw the thug from his elevated position, into the roof, shattering a few lights and throwing sparks everywhere. He fell heavily to the ground, and I heard a second voice grunt from the impact. He must have fallen onto one of his buddies.

I started to run over to the bar, but a the fallen angel in my head made another appearance, saying, "_To your right, in the alcove, on a table._"

I turned in that direction, and saw a turian with a sniper rifle start to take aim at Shepard, who had just entered into the fray. I aimed my dagger at him, shouted, "_Vind!_", and a sudden gust of wind tore through the club, throwing glasses every which way. It threw the turian's aim off, and he turned his head to find me point my Carnifex at him. I pulled the trigger twice, tearing through his shield and his chest. He dropped to the ground.

There was a thump on the back of my head, as a bullet bounced off the protective spells of my hoodie. Someone just got a headshot on me. Where normally there would have been a flash of pain, all I felt was the pressure of the impact, thanks to Lasciel's cool pain killing technique. Otherwise I would have dropped to the floor in pain. I'm certainly going to feel that knot tomorrow, but right now, there were people trying to kill me.

I spun around to see another thug with a pistol in his hands, which were shaking, and I aimed right for his eyes, which were wide with horror, to give as good as I got. The man fell to the ground with a new hole in his face.

Two simultaneous sniper shots rang out, and I looked farther into the club to see two men, one with cuts across his arms (the guy I must have thrown off the stage) and one with rumpled clothes (the guy the first must have landed on) drop to the ground, their chests bleeding from the sniper shots.

I looked over to the side to see Garrus and Shepard share a collaboratory fist bump.

Suddenly, Ashley shouted, "Look out!", and started to open fire on someone.

A freight train slammed into my back, throwing me to the floor. A gruff voice called out, "You should have never messed with a krogan!" In peripheral vision, I saw Kaidan be thrown across the room and into a table, breaking it.

I scrambled to get onto my back, and did so just in time to see a krogan loom over me. Just behind him, I could see Ashley and Tali laying into him with bullets, but his armor shrugged most of it off, and that which it didn't, didn't seem to bother him.

The krogan reared his head back and slammed it into my forehead. I heard a cracking sound from up there, but felt no pain as I scrambled to grab my dagger, which I had dropped in the initial tackle.

My hand grasped onto something that felt like my knife, and as the krogan went for another headbutt, I grabbed the top of his head with my left hand, and shoved the dagger through the underneath of his jaw, going straight through the roof of his mouth and into his brain. He went limp in death not milliseconds later.

Damn shame he weighs a ton, because all that dead muscle fell limply onto my, crushing me.

"Ack!" I said, flailing my hand in the air to get someone's attention. In the background, I heard some more gunshots, two more death nells, and Shepard calling out, "Clear!", with Kaidan, Ashley, and Garrus responding, "Clear!"

"Is everyone okay?" I head Shepard ask. I tried to make some more feeble noises so someone would take notice. No one did. "Where's Michael?" Shepard asked.

"He got taken out by that krogan," I head Ashley say. "I heard his head crack open like a watermelon."

"Hey," I called out weakly. "A little early to go call my death, isn't it?"

There was a rushing of footsteps, and Ashley said, "Holy crap."

I saw her in my peripheral, and cast a glare her way. "Don't go saying I'm dead until you check the corpse." I told her. "Now, can someone get this guy off me? My lungs are just about ready to burst."

With the effort of Shepard, Garrus, and myself, we were able to push the fat bastard off me. When she saw the knife in the krogan's head, Shepard let out a low whistle. "Nicely done," she said, her tone impressed. "A krogan rushed you, and you're the one to walk away from it. Not many can say that."

I sat up, rubbing my forehead, where the fucker had headbutted me. "Yeah, well. I've fought worse than him."

Shepard looked at me for a moment, then said, quietly, "Yeah, I imagine so…" She shook her head. "Anyway, you injured?"

I kept rubbing my head. "I ain't in pain, but I think tons-a-fun over there cracked my skull when he headbutted me."

"You got your skull cracked open, and yet you can still have a conversation without howling in pain?" Kaidan asked. He looked none-too-worse-for-wear for being thrown across the room. "How?"

I gave him a tired smile. Pain or no, that fight, plus all the magic I've been throwing around has made me weary. "Wizardly discipline," I said cryptically. I also had some not-so divine intervention to help with it, but I left that part out.

As I got up and retrieved my dagger and pistol, Ashley said, "Damn. You're a walking tank."

I snorted. "Oh, God, no. I'm going to feel all this in the morning. I'm just blocking it out now so I can keep going." I looked deeper into the club, at a doorway on the far wall. "Speaking of, shall we continue?"

As I made my way to the door, I heard Garrus say, "Tough son of a bitch…"

I smiled as I reached the door.

When I opened it, two men stood in front of me, pointing pistols at my chest.

"Don't come any closer, or we'll shoot!" One of them shouted, but he sounded far from confident about it. I took a closer look at them, and noticed that they looked more like warehouse workers than hired thugs, and that they were probably bullied into doing this by Fist.

I gave them a level stare from behind my mask. "I think it might be time for you two to get a new profession," I told them in an even voice.

They gave each other uncertain looks, then the first dropped his pistol to the ground and said, "Yeah, that might be a good idea…" The second did the same, saying, "I never liked Fist anyway." They both left.

"Good," I head Shepard say from next to me. "Don't need any civilians getting caught in the crossfire." She cast me a sidelong look, and amended, "Well, more civilians…"

I smirked from under my mask.

We made our way to the other end of the hall, opened the door there, and stepped into a room, where a man could be heard muttering, "I you want something done…"

The room was an office, with a large center desk, from which the voice came from (must have been behind it). Off to either side of the desk, floor panels opened up, and two defensive turrets sprang forth from the ground, immediately opening fire on us.

I reacted quickly. I dropped my pistol from my left hand, raised said appendage with my palm facing out, and shouted, "_Forsvar!_"

A wall of half translucent energy spawned into existence right in front of me, protecting me, and the others, from the oncoming fire. With each bullet that bounced off my shield, the rings on my left hand got hotter, as the momentum of the bullets was turned into heat (after all, even with magic, you can't destroy energy or matter, just convert it).

"Garrus!" I shouted over my shoulder. "When my shield goes down, take a shot at Fist!"

"How in the Spirits are you doing that?!" He shouted back.

"Magic!" Was my only response.

When the turrets overheated, I dropped the shield, and watched as Fist popped out from cover, only to take a sniper round to the head. He dropped gracelessly to the ground, and I turned my focus on the turrets, raising my dagger at them, and shouting, "_Brann!_"

A large gout of flame shot out of the tip of the knife, and slagged the turrets beyond their ability to handle. The heat got intense for a moment, but I only needed the fire of a second. After the second passed, I cut back on the magic, and stared at the two turrets, which were broken beyond repair.

The desk and most of the room was on fire as well.

Um… Oops?

"Crap!" I said over the roar of the flames. "Run!"

We all sprinted for the outside of the club. When we got there, we turned to watch the building burn to the ground.

"Huh," Garrus said suddenly. He looked at me, and said, "So that's what happened to that warehouse down in the Zakara Wards."

I glowered at him. "You can't prove that was me. C-Sec couldn't during the investigation, and you still can't now." I shrugged, my gaze going back to the fire. "Besides, did you notice how child kidnappings in that area had a sudden drop, around the same time that building was burnt to the ground?"

Garrus just looked at me, then back at the fire.

Shepard sighed.

I looked at her. "What?"

"We're going to have one Hell of a time explaining this one to ambassador Udina…" She mumbled. She looked up at me, and smirked. "That, and I have a serial arsonist in my team."

I glowered at her too. "_Suspected _arsonist." I pulled down my hood and mask. "Well, we best get back to the job at hand. This was a nice distraction and all, but the galaxy needs us focused."

Shepard nodded. "Right. To the embassy."

We left the burnt remains of Chora's Den behind us.

And to this day, no one can _still _pin that on me.

* * *

When we entered an office in the embassy, the man I took to be humanity's ambassador shook his head without turning to face us. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards? An all out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" he turned to face us for the first time, and saw the aliens in the room. "Who's this? A quarian?" He looked at me. "And who are you?"

"Michael Blackstone," I offered.

That seemed to set him off. "Michael Blackstone, the man who claims to be a wizard?" He whirled onto Shepard. "You brought this charlatan here?! What possible reason could you have to do som-"

I couldn't help it. I really tried to resist. But the giggles had built up almost immediately to a level that I couldn't handle, and I burst out into a full belly laugh.

Udina whirled onto me this time, his face red with rage. "What are you laughing at?!"

I pointed right into his face and said, between the laughs. "You!" I tried to calm myself with a deep breath, but it just turned into another laugh. "I mean… A politician, calling me- Me! The wizard!- a charlatan! Oh, god!" I kept laughing for a good few minutes.

When my laughs turned into giggles, I stared Udina right in the face and said, "You're fucking stupid!" And burst out laughing again.

"Shepard," I said between gasps of air. "Shepard, heh. I'll be… I'll be out there. Ha… Come find me when you're done with this moron." And I left quickly, still giggling, and said over my shoulder, "God, what an idiot!"

The door closed behind me as some of the others in the group, Shepard and an older military man included, tried to hold back their laughter at my sudden outburst.

Some minutes later, I was leaning against a railing overlooking the Presidium. Shepard ambled over to me and rested the small of her back against the rail, her arms folded. "Well," she said after a moment. "That was funny."

I smiled at the Irish beauty. "Yes. Yes, it was."

"So, you wanted to talk?"

I nodded. "Yeah. This whole thing with Saren? I'm coming along for the ride."

She frowned prettily at me. "Are you sure? It's not going to be very safe."

I looked at her. "At what point did you get the impression that I couldn't take care of myself? Was it when I took that shotgun blast to the chest and got back up? Or when that krogan cracked my skull, and yet _I _killed _him_?"

She bobbed her head in allowance. "Granted. But this is going to be different than a few scuffles in back alleys. We're going on a manhunt for a Council Specter, one of the most dangerous men there are. And he's got an army of geth by his side. Your little kinetic push thing is all well and good, but the geth don't have to worry about things such as falls and heights like we people do. And your pistol won't do very much against a geth shock trooper."

I turned around to face away from the view of the Presidium, leaning back against the rail like Shepard. "The geth are those robots that attacked Eden Prime, right?" She nodded. "Good, because I've been holding back."

Shepard tilted her head. "What do you mean? You burnt down a building."

I smiled. "Well, yeah. But did you notice how I never used my magic to directly kill anyone? It was always with my pistol, never with the force or fire."

"Yeah, I had noticed that." Shepard frowned again. "Why?"

"Because killing a mortal with magic is against one of the Laws."

More confusion. "The Laws?"

I shook my head. "The Seven Laws of Magic. I'll explain later. What I'm getting at is that the geth aren't mortals. They're machines, and I'm allowed to do whatever I please with my magic in relation to machines." I looked her in the face. "What you've seen so far was me holding back. I could do more. _Much_ more." I shrugged. "Besides. Someone hired Malik to hunt for Tali, and I know it wasn't Fist. That is quite literally my business."

Kyla raised an eyebrow. "Your business?"

"Among other things, I, by and large, protect mortals from the supernatural threats that are out there. Tali is a mortal, and someone had used a Black Court vampire to make sure that they got her, be it dead or alive. That's right up my alley. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was Saren who hired Malik to hunt Tali, and if he has enough clout in the freaky world to make a century old Black Court vamp do what he says, then he's someone that needs to be stopped. Which is what I do. Again, among other things."

Shepard stared at me for a moment. Then she said, "You think that we'll run into more of that crazy stuff you've been talking about?"

I nodded. "And it would do you good to get the one and only wizard on your team. If nothing spooky shows their face, then you've still got someone who can throw around fire and lightning like it's their personal toy. If they do show up, which I'm betting they will, then you've got yourself an expert on the subject." I smiled at her. "It's a win-win for you."

Shepard thought about it for a moment, then nodded her head. "Yeah. Yeah, it is." She walked in front of me, and held out her hand, throwing a dazzling smile at me. "Welcome to the team."

I smiled back, and shook her hand. "Good be here." Our hands fell back to our sides. "I'm going to need to collect some things from my apartment. Wizardly tools, and the like. I'll meet you at your ship?"

She nodded, and opened up her omni-tool to send me the location of her ship. "See you there. I've got a meeting with the Council to attend."

We went our separate ways, both going to prepare for the upcoming hunt.

* * *

**A/N: Well, here it is. The next chapter, full of combat and stuff! Please tell me how I did here, because I'm not too confident in my ability to write combat. But the way I see it, combat isn't really all that cool or glamorous, but rather quick and dirty, all depending on who draws first. Tell me what you think.**

**Anyway, comments, questions, criticisms and queries are always welcome.**

**And as alwa-**

**Wait, what?**

**Really?**

**I've got to-**

**But, I've already established that I don't-**

**Ugh, fine!**

**My non-existent lawyer says that I've got to give credit where it's due. So, no I don't own Mass Effect or the Dresden Files. All I own is the laptop I'm writing this on. Which probably nets me about a buck fifty.**

**Now, for real this time.**

**And as always...**

**Thanks For Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy**


	4. Settling in

I exited the elevator to the docking bay that the _Normandy_ was stationed at with a dufflebag of wizardly implements over my shoulder, took a single look at the ship, and instantly thought, "_Greatness follows that ship."_

There wasn't really any single reason for me to think that, other than just the.. feel of it, I guess. It wasn't a magical feeling, or anything like that (Ships had a tendency to not have flowing magical energies through them, given their constantly changing nature), but a simple gut instinct that told me that big things were to come aboard that ship, and that I would do good to either join in or get out of the way.

I saw Shepard, along with Garrus, Ashley, Kaidan, Tali, and a krogan that I didn't recognise standing next to Udina and the older military man from the embassy. As I got closer, Udina and the man said their goodbyes and left, walking past me. Udina glared at me, and I simply smiled back at him.

I walked up to Shepard. "Wasn't that the captain of this ship?" I asked, pointing a thumb over my shoulder, back at the military man.

Shepard nodded, a bit of a sad look on her face. "Yeah, it was. Captain Anderson. He stepped down, and gave the ship to me."

I blinked. "I'm guessing that you're not entirely okay with this?"

She shrugged. "I'm fine with having my own ship. Hell, as a Specter, I pretty much need one. I'm _not _fine with taking it away from Anderson. I owe him too much for that." She sighed. "But… it wasn't really my choice."

"Sorry to hear that," I told her. Seeing sadness on a face that pretty just didn't seem right, especially considering that there were so many smile lines there. I tried to change the subject. "Wait, Specter?"

She nodded. "Yeah, the Council gave the position to me earlier today."

Huh. The more you know. Anyway… "So, who's the krogan?"

Said krogan lumbered up to me, and stared me right in the eyes. I averted my gaze as quickly as I could, not wanting to start a Soul Gaze. The krogan must have seen this as a sign of weakness, because he snorted, and said, "Can't even lock eyes for a second. Most other puny people can stare back for at least _that _long before shitting themselves." He turned to Shepard. "We aren't letting this weakling come along, are we?" Shepard didn't reply. She just folded her arms, and waited. She knew as well as I did that this krogan was a predator, and her helping me would only prove his point. I needed to make this first impression on my own.

The fact that he called me, a _wizard_, weak was something that pissed me off a little. I mean, I had more power in my little finger than this lizard did in his entire body. He might be stronger or faster than me, but a lot of things that had tried to kill me in the past were as well, and I survived all of them. Hell, I _killed_ most of them. Compared to the nightmares that I faced on a near daily basis, this guy was child's play. So, you know what? Fuck it.

I used the anger and frustration that the krogan's insult made, and put my will in my voice, saying, "_Look at me._" My voice had gotten deeper and richer, more full, when I put my will behind it, and no one there was able to resist the demand. All eyes were on me, including the krogan's. And I met his gaze with my own. The Soul Gaze started not seconds later, as the world around us disappeared.

* * *

The scenery of the docking bay changed to a scene right out of a war movie. Around me there was a tattered and destroyed landscape, all sand and dust and rock, with rugged mountains in the background. The sky seemed to be an almost rusty red, and the sun bore down on my locations mercilessly.

I stood on a rocky plateau, where dozens of bodies were strewn about. The bodies ranged from krogan, to human and asari, to turian and salarian, and even an odd big-like species. At the very edge of the plateau, stood the krogan I was Soul Gazing, and I made my way, past all the bloody bodies, to him.

He stood at the edge of a sheer cliff face, with one foot planted on a rock in front of him. His right hand held a shotgun that was pointed deftly to one side, blasting some enemy that didn't seem to make a coherent shape. His head was turned up to stare at the sun, and I moved myself to get a good look at his face.

The red krogan had scars on him, no one can deny that. The physical ones were prevalent enough that even an idiot would be able to tell that this krogan had been through Hell. But here, in his very soul, the scars ran deeper than that. It was mostly in the still image's eyes.

There was a pain there; something deep and achy, beyond simple agony. This warrior knew agony, and he could deal with that. What was in his eyes was something worse. It was seeing your once proud people be reduced to mercenaries and infighters, slowly killing themselves because finding a way to fix the problem would mean seeking out help. The krogan people didn't seek out help. In the past, they _were _the help, and that fact was ingrained deep into their instincts, making their pride become so swollen that it was suffocating everything else.

This krogan here was different from his kin, in the fact that he could not only see what was happening to his people, but he was also willing to do whatever would be necessary to get them to their once former glory. Because that was the other thing that I saw in the still image's eyes: a dying fire, a passion, to set his people back on the road to glory. The fire in his eyes was dying, slowly becoming cooled embers, but like every fire, all that was needed would be more fuel and enough care, and that fire would become a raging pyre.

This krogan's soul was bloody, beaten, torn apart, and put back together again. There was very little in the way of peace, but there was that fire, that passion in his eyes. A dying, but salvageable hope that there just might be a better future for the krogan people.

The images around me started to fade as the Soul Gaze ended, and we were both brought back to reality.

* * *

As we came back to ourselves, the images of the krogan's soul burned themselves into my mind. I saw him shudder from what he saw in my soul, which was a considerable action, coming from a krogan. Tantamount to anyone else straight up passing out, actually.

I looked the krogan in the eye, and said, quite calmly, "Let me be clear. You aren't a threat to me. I'm not a threat to you. If we're going to work together, you are going to give me the respect that I deserve, none of that macho bullshit that you give everyone else. If you can't do that, then stay out of my way before you get burned."

The krogan looked back at me for a moment, then nodded. "You've got a real quad to keep that… _thing_ from crushing you." He offered me his hand to shake. "I can respect that. Wrex." He must have seen Lasciel's influence on my soul when he Gazed me. Not good.

I shook his hand. "Michael Blackstone."

I turned to Shepard, who was staring at me with slightly wide eyes and this odd gleam in her eye, and said, "So, where do I put my stuff?"

"You just…" She started.

"Stared down a krogan, and won?" I finished for her. I shrugged. "Maybe a little."

"You're insane," I heard Ashley mumble.

I turned to face her, and gave her a smile. "Lady, I'm a wizard. Of course I'm insane."

"You keep surprising me, Michael," Garrus said. "Will that ever stop?"

I shrugged. "Eventually. You gotta get used to the weird stuff that happens around me, then you'll be good." I jerked my head at the ship. "Now, come on. You can question my sanity when we hit the road."

Everyone nodded, and went to step onto the ship, Shepard taking the lead. It was her ship, after all.

We stepped into the airlock, went through decontamination, and entered the ship.

The place was very techie. Immediately to my left, there was the cockpit, with a bearded man in a hat sitting in the pilot's chair. Consoles and screens were lit up and blinking at their respective stations. To the right was the way into the rest of the ship. More specifically, it led to the CIC. Along the pathway, there was a drop down from the given path, and seats were facing the walls, computers at the ready, crewmen already preparing to get the tub moving. In the main area, I could see the galaxy map, with a raised platform for the Commander, and a wall with the name of the ship in white letters on the blueish metal.

"Okay, everyone," Shepard said, turning to address everyone who walked in with her. "Go and find somewhere to set yourselves up. Michael," she turned to face me specifically, "go down to the medbay and see Dr. Chakwas about your head. I'll show you where you can put your things later." She made a shooing motion. "Now, all of you, get lost."

I shrugged, and made my way into the CIC, hugging the wall. I went past a door, down some stairs, and found myself in the crew area, which included the mess, sleeper pods, the CO quarters, and the medbay. I made my way in there.

Sitting at a desk near the right wall of the bay was a matronly old woman with grey hair. She looked up at the sound of the door opening, and said, with an English accent, "Can I help you?"

"I'm with Shepard, going to be on her ground team," I told her. I gestured at my head. "I got headbutted by a krogan, and I'm fairly sure that my skull got cracked. I figured I should probably get it looked at."

She blinked at me. "You… got your skull cracked? And you're not screaming in pain? Or unconscious?"

I shrugged. "Apparently not." I put my dufflebag off to the side, and stepped farther into the bay. "Little help please?"

She got up and motioned for one of the beds. "Take a seat," she told me, and I did. She brought up her omni-tool, did a little scan, and said. "You were right. It seems that your skull was fractured. You won't be joining Shepard in the next mission, I can assure you that. Maybe not even the one after that, until this gets healed properly."

I had expected as much. But still, I hate just sitting around. Idle hands are the Devil's playthings, as they say. "Damn," I muttered.

A few minutes, and some medical treatment later, I had a nice wrapping of gauze around my head. It made me feel a bit silly.

"There," Chakwas said. "Now do try and refrain from anything that might hit your head again. It would be tragic for you to survive a krogan headbutt, only to die falling down the stairs, yes?"

I blinked at her, my eyes a little glazed over. Whatever Lasciel had done to take away the pain was fading, and the crack was starting to hurt. I was about to reply, when a voice came over the intercom of the ship.

"This is Commander Shepard speaking," the voice rang out. It had that slight Irish drawl that identified the Commander. "We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew. This mission isn't going to be easy.

"This began with an attack on a human settlement in the Traverse. But we know Saren won't stop there. His geth armies aren't going to stay on the far fringes of Citadel space. For too long our species has stood apart from the others. Now it's time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy. Time to show them what humans are made of!

"Our enemy knows we're coming. When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us. But we'll be ready for them, too.

"Humanity needs to do this. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel Space. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all… we will stop him!"

The intercom cut off after that, leaving the medbay in silence.

"Well," I said, breaking the silence. "She has a way with words, I'll give her that." I looked at the Chakwas. "Am I good to go, doc?"

She nodded. "Simply be mindful of your head, and you should be fine."

"Great," I replied, smiling. "Thanks." I got up and went over to my dufflebag. I pursed my lips, and turned back to the good doctor. "Hey, doc?" I asked. "You know anywhere I might be able to put my stuff?"

Chakwas looked up from the terminal she was on and over in my direction. "I'm not sure," she said. "But you are likely to find somewhere down in the cargo bay."

I nodded and waved my thanks, exiting the medbay.

I heard someone call from across the hall, "Nice hat you got there."

I looked in the direction the voice came from, and saw Kaidan leaning against a railing

"I'd like to see how you fair getting your face smashed by a giant lizard who has bones of titanium," I replied. "It might break your pretty chiseled jaw." I walked over to him.

He smiled at me, then a thought seemed to cross his mind, and the smile faltered. I knew what he was going to ask next, before it even left his lips. "Hey, so… What happened there, in the alley…" He looked at the floor, gathering his words. Then he stared at my face, his brow furrowed in question. "I'm not going nuts, am I? That did happen, right? The whole 'walking corpse' thing?"

A flash of sympathy ran through me, but I kept it off my face. I've learned that soldiers, by and large, don't want or appreciate pity, and sympathy can often be misconstrued as such. "Yeah," I told him. "It did. Whether you're going nuts or not is a different subject altogether."

A brief smile danced on the man's lips, and then it was gone. "I just… I never would have thought that the galaxy could hold… _things_ like that, you know?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Despite all the advancement of civilization, it's scary to realise that we- all of us- are nowhere near the top of the food chain, and that stuff like this has been happening since before humanity had a written language." I thumped him on the shoulder with my left hand- my right was busy holding my dufflebag over my shoulder. "Don't worry, man. After I settle in, I'll be glad to answer whatever questions you have. Just let me unpack and get my head straight." I tapped my temple. "This is starting to hurt."

Kaidan nodded. "Right, right. You do that. I just need to wrap my head around the concept that the monsters under the bed are actually real. I'll be good after that."

I nodded at him in goodbye, and went over to the elevator that I saw earlier. I entered, pressed the button to go down, and waited what seemed like an hour before I reached where I was going.

I stepped out of the elevator, muttered, "Christ, are all elevators slow in this universe?", and took in my immediate surroundings.

The cargo bay was as you'd expect a military vessel's cargo bay to be. Off to the left wall was a stack of crates, which Wrex was leaning on, and farther down it was a bench where Ashley was dismantling a rifle. To my immediate right was a table and a chair, and along that wall was a big ass vehicle, a tank of some sort, with Garrus standing nearby, working on a terminal. At the far end of the bay was a slanted wall that I knew was the cargo bay door.

I took an extra second to take in the surroundings, then moved over to the empty table, which was built into the wall, on my right. I set my bag on the table, and started to take some things out. The things I took out were my most frequently used wizardly tools, and my most recent projects. A bunsen burner found it's way next to a set of beakers, and old, leather bound books, at least ten of them, were placed off to the side. A metal box, which contained the most dangerous item that I owned, was placed off to the side as well, near the far right edge of the table. I also put a metal maniacal, and the tools to engrave it, on the center of the desk, for my immediate attention. A small pouch of crystalline balls found it's new home on top of the books. The dufflebag found it's place on the floor, still full of things like ingredients, crafting tools, and some small side projects.

I sat down in the chair, kicked my feet up onto the table, and continued to work on engraving the outside of the maniacal with mystic runes. Metal files fell to the floor as I worked.

This little project of mine had been going on for a while. To have the maniacal do what I wanted it to properly, I had to introduce magic into _as_ I worked on it, not after. But the problem with working with metal is that it's tough. I couldn't find a metal soft enough that I could work on it hands on while engraving it. The only proper way to do something like that was when the metal I was working with was white hot. Futuristic alloys are weird like that.

So, instead of changing the metal, I changed the tool. I had to do a lot of searching, but I eventually found a tool not too dissimilar to a tattoo needle that worked fast and hard against the metal, so that it could be engraved without the need of a forge. The downside was that the process would take about twice as long, maybe even longer. It was a necessary evil, however, as the magic I was working on the piece needed to be put into the stores while it was being made, then charged afterwards, for it to work like I intend.

The sound of the elevator doors opening up cut me off from my work. I quickly checked my wrist watch (one with actual clockwork, not this digital/omni-tool crap), and saw that I had been working for about two hours.

I look up to see Shepard step out of the elevator, get a good look at where everyone is, and then make her way to talk to Wrex. Minutes pass, and she moves over to Ashley, and then does the same again, making her way over to Garrus. After some time, she then comes over to me, where I sit relaxed in my chair.

"I see you've set yourself up nicely," she says as she walks over.

I looked at her, and nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. I still have a lot of stuff in my bag, but this'll do for now."

She got closer and leaned a hip on the edge of the table, her arms folded under her breasts. "What, you used to living in the lap of luxury?"

I snorted. "Oh, fuck no. As a PI, I barely got by as it was. Being a gumshoe isn't as glamorous as the movies make it out to be. I'm simply used to having more space than a single desk." I shrugged. "But I can accommodate."

The Irish beauty nodded. "Good." There was a silence that passed between the two of us, and Shepard seemed to be trying to find the words to broach something. After a moment, she said, "So, you promised answers to any questions I had."

I studied her face, trying to discern what was going through that pretty head of hers. Unfortunately for me, she was very good at hiding her emotions, and I would need more time observing her mannerisms to pick up on a tell she might have. So I just nodded. "Yeah," I told her. "I did. Ask, and I'll answer as best I can."

She shook her head, her red curls bouncing. "It's just… I'm going over what happened in that alley over my head, and all the stuff that you did in Chora's Den, and it almost seems ridiculous when I think about it. I mean, a vampire? Walking corpses? Wizard investigators?" She sighed, and rubbed her eyes with a hand. "That's the kind of stuff that can get you a CAT-6. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not going insane."

Despite myself, a little laugh escaped me. "Kaidan said almost the exact same thing, about two hours ago." I shook my head. "No, Shepard. You're not going insane. You're simply learning that the galaxy is much bigger, and much more dangerous than previously thought. And that's saying something, considering what you already knew is out there."

Shepard's hand was wrapped around her torso again, and she narrowed her eyes at me. "So, you mean to tell me that all this time, all the mythological creatures that were ever written about in human history, all the vampires, and demons, and gods, and stuff like that. All of those monsters are real?"

I nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying. The phrase 'all myth is based on a semblance of truth' exists for a reason."

"And no one has taken notice to this?" She shook her head. "I don't buy that."

"Oh, people have taken notice," I said. "It's just something that no one talks about, for fear of being labeled as insane."

"What? But if people have noticed, news of that kind of stuff is bound to spread."

I shook my head. "But, despite eyewitness testimonies, reports, and heavy evidence that would lead to the conclusion that the supernatural is real, people still do their damnedest to make sure that no one knows about it. Governments and large organizations, especially."

Shepard tilted her head. "Why? What reason could they possibly have to just… ignore something as big as monsters like that? I mean, a walking corpse is hard to forget, even if some politician disavows of it's existence."

"The supernatural is ignored, as you put it, because people are still people. Despite the advancement and enlightenment, and the alleged cultural stability of the turian, asari, salarian, and every other space-flight race, people still have fear. There are still things that make people act irrationally, and monsters that bypass all rational thought and cause pure, brain-stem fear are scary. They brake the normalcy that advanced civilization uses as a smokescreen to prevent themselves from seeing the more horrifying truth; that the galaxy, and it's inhabitants, are big. Bigger than some measly little Council, or it's peoples, and more often than not, the monsters use said peoples as food and livestock. When people fear the truth, they have an amazing tendency to ignore it altogether, and move on with life as though none of it was real. And as for people forgetting the supernatural encounters that they have?" I shrugged. "They don't forget. They simply rationalise it from 'unbelievable and terrifying' to 'weird but explainable'. Often times, the excuses that people come up with range from 'it was dark, and I couldn't see very well,' to 'The stress was getting to me, and I was seeing things'."

Shepard soaked all this information up, and shook her head. "So, what you're saying, is that not only is the galactic community in a collective case of denial, but all the science and development that has been going on for the past few centuries, millennia, even, is all an attempt to just explain away the boogy man?"

I nodded. "Yup. Of course, that's not to say that science isn't without merit. I mean, look around you," I gestured widely to the ship as a whole. "Without science, something like this would never even be possible. But if a modern day scientist runs into a Red Court vampire's corpse, a being that can live for centuries on nothing but blood, they have to face questions like, 'how is it the flesh mask is made?' or, 'how can blood, which contains no real nutritional value, be enough to sustain someone for that long?' The answer is usually so beyond their realm of normalcy that they would prefer throwing away the corpse altogether, rather than face the hard truth of the answers. We're all ostriches, and the whole galaxy is sand."

Shepard stared at me, shaking her head. "That's just… Damn, that seems so unreal."

"As unreal as it may seem, that's how it is. The supernatural is out there. You've seen it. What remains to be seen is if you accept that horrible truth, and live with the consequences, or if you ignore it, and return to the life of blissful ignorance." As blissfully ignorant as a soldier can be, anyway.

Shepard looked at the ground, her brow furrowed in thought, her mouth curled into a pretty frown. Then, she said, "I need to sit on this for now. If I have more questions, I'll come see you, okay?"

I nodded at her. "Got it, Shepard."

She pushed herself off the table, and left. I watched her go.

In no way was I staring at her ass.

Not even a little.

… God, I need to get laid…

With _that _completely irrelevant thought trying to worm it's way into my head, I turned my attention to Shepard's situation, not her ass (stupid freaking hormones…).

Shepard did not, in any way, strike me as someone who would willingly ignore the truth, just because it gave her a good scare. Her job was to fight and protect innocents from threats that the average person doesn't even consciously realise is a threat. She fought things for a living, so other people wouldn't have to. I had no doubt that she wouldn't just try to explain away what happened in the alleyway. The only thing I did wonder was what she was going to do with this newfound information. Would she actively hunt down the children of the night, or only react when the monsters from under the bed cross their boundaries (of which, there were many, both monsters and boundaries). In no way do I see the red headed commander just forgetting that these threats exist. I'm just worried that she's going to approach them like she would any other enemy combatant. That kind of mentality could get her killed, or worse.

I looked onto my desk, noting that the maniacal that I had been working on had made slight, but definite progress. I felt too tired to continue the work at the moment, and I wanted to get all the grime and sweat from the day's activities off me. I pushed my project off to the side, made sure the metal box on my desk was properly locked, and that the wards on it were still active, and got up to take a shower.

* * *

Showers, as anyone will tell you, are good for you. They scrub off the muck and grime that you pick up from day to day activities, and can be a very soothing, very meditative activity. The rushing water simply feels good on your skin, and when taking a hot shower, the steam that's created can clear your sinuses, allowing that stuffy nose you've been dealing with to go away, if only for a little while.

They are also good for you in the magical spectrum. Running water grounds out magical energies, and when you work around other magical beings or near ley lines, sometimes excess magic can stick to your aura, subtly influencing your actions and decisions. It's not the kind of thing that turns you into a raving lunatic, but if you get covered in depressing magical energies, then you'll end up being gloomy all day.

I didn't think that there were any major magical stains, as I call them, on my aura, but it never hurt to be careful. And besides, it's like I said. Showers are good for you.

Of course, the shower I was having was a little colder than I would have liked, but I was on a military vessel. They're all about efficiency, not comfort. Still though, after today's combat, it would be nice to have a warm shower.

And very slowly, the water from the shower started to turn from cold to hot. It was a quiet change, at first, barely noticeable. But as the water got warmer, I started to take notice, and started to look around the area to see if there was something that I did, a button or lever, that caused the heat.

I felt a warm, feminine form press up against my back, and I stopped trying to look for what had caused the sudden change in water temperature. I just got my answer.

I closed my eyes and muttered, "How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?"

The feminine form pressed into my back shifted, and a woman circled around me, pressing her naked body against my chest.

She was tall for a woman, about six feet, making her four or five inches shorter than me. She had golden blonde hair that fell past her shoulders and onto the small of her back. Beautiful blue eyes and a heart shaped face stared at me, and she pressed her athletic body closer to mine.

"Is it not pleasing, though, my host?" Lasciel asked me. The fallen angel's shadow gave me a sweet smile. "After today's events, I thought it might be nice for you to have at least some sort of respite." She snaked her arms around my neck, and stared up at me with half-lidded eyes. "If it is _more _pleasure you desire, my host, you need only ask."

My glands thoroughly agreed with that idea, and Lasciel knew it. But I wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of letting it show on my face. So, I simply glowered at her. "No," I said firmly. "In fact, not just no, but _Hell_ no. Now, are you here for a reason, or just to take enjoyment in tormenting me?" I thought about that for a second, then said, "Actually, don't answer that second one."

Lasciel smirked at me, but got to the point. "It is this quest you are taking up, my host," she told me. Her voice was low and husky; she was trying to cloud my judgement via my own hormones. "The likelihood of our mutual destruction will increase the longer that we pursue this Saren. It would be wise for you to cease this fool's errand."

"Too late to stop now," I told her. "You know, considering the fact that we're in the middle of space at the moment. It isn't as though I can ask the pilot to pull over so I could get out." As I said this, Lasciel drew herself closer, and shifted her hips, brushing her thighs against me in a manner that caused my glands to try and mutiny again.

I squashed the little rebellion and glowered at her some more. "Besides," I said through gritted teeth. "You know me. I can't just let some asshole like Saren just run around and kill innocent people for no apparent reason. That's not how I do things."

Lasciel drew herself up to my ear, making sure to have as much skin on skin contact as possible, and whispered, "If you are so set on this course of action, my host, then allow me to help you. Your destruction would mean mine, as well."

My glower deepened, but I made no move to push the fallen angel away from me. "No. If I'm doing this, it will be on my own terms. Not as someone's meat puppet. I'm well aware of what happens to people who pick up the coin, or take help from the fallen's shadow. The first taste is free, sure, but the price keeps going up as my dependency on you does. I've already accepted more help from you in the past day, than I have in the previous three months." I shook my head. "So, no. I won't be taking any of your 'help'. I like my soul as my own, thank you very much."

The fallen angel drew away from my ear, gave me a frustrated look, then drew back up and placed a kiss on my mouth.

Simply saying that she kissed me gives you the general idea of what she did, but it doesn't describe the… intensity that it was done with. When her lips landed on mine, there was an instant rush of lust and hormones that nearly overwhelmed me. I'm not really sure how to describe it other than that. But the sheer overwhelming force that the kiss seemed to cause in me was nearly enough to make me kiss her back and to see where that led. The bitch knew what effect that she was having on my senses, and pushed herself deeper into the kiss, trying to drown me in my own impulses.

Thankful, though, I held myself back, and even managed to pull away, despite certain parts of me trying to convince me to get back in there and see what happened.

Lasciel took a half step back, with so many subtle movements in her body that it drew my eye to too many places at once. She gave a short huff of breath, and said, "You are easier to talk to when you are asleep, my host." And then she was gone. She didn't leave the shower, she simply wasn't there anymore. One moment she's present, the next, gone.

Did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Lasciel was never there to begin with. She was a being that only existed inside my head, and she has the ability to alter my perceptions to such a startling degree that if I think about it too much, I start to become paranoid about what's reality and what isn't. She can make me see, hear, smell, taste, and feel things that aren't really there, and do it so effectively that the only way I would be able to figure out that it was an illusion was if I were actively searching for it. It was one of the reasons that she was so dangerous to me (aside from the obvious 'temptation' thing). She has the ability to make me feel things, pleasures of the body and mind, that no one else could offer, and she tried her damnedest to convince me to take it. After all, it's the first step to damnation that's the hardest. From there, it's all downhill.

Lasciel tried to use my weak spot towards attractive women who actively come on to me. Passive flirting I can do, but if a woman tries in earnest, I kinda turn into a blubbering mess. It didn't work because the fallen angel had tried that trick about a handful of other times. The first time she came close, but I had enough forethought to stop myself before I did anything stupid. I can stop myself from turning into a babbling mess when she's involved, so long as I keep in mind the fact that she's trying to subvert my free will, but anyone else? Not so much.

But anyway, that last bit that she said to me was something worth noting. Apparently, I'm "easier to talk to when I'm asleep". I heard that line somewhere before, and I knew exactly what it meant. She was talking about her talking to my subconscious, my hindbrain, whatever you want to call it. The part of me that is more basic instinct, not social survivor. It would only make sense that a being that exists only within my head, and for the sole purpose of tempting my immortal soul down to Hell, would have other ways to influence someone outside of conscious conversation.

But there wasn't much I could do about that. My subconscious is just that; my subconscious. I, as the conscious mind, don't have any real say in what goes on in that part of my head. I steer the ship, sure, but my hindbrain is the engineer, making sure that the parts all work. All I should worry about is when Lasciel comes to me in an illusion, like she just did, with her supple skin, and beautiful curv-

At some point the water had turned from that comfortable illusory hot back to it's real cold. I stuck my head underneath the stream of water, trying to drown out the thoughts that were creeping into my head.

The cold water was certainly less comfortable, but maybe that's for the best. After all, I need something to keep myself in line.

Stupid Lasciel, and her stupid illusion tricks…

* * *

Some time later, I'm not sure how long, I was exploring the remainder of the ship. I had seen the cargo bay enough, given that's where I situated myself, and found where engineering was (I promptly left, as soon as I found it), so I thought it would be good to get myself familiar with the remainder of the ship's interior.

I was taking a look around the CIC, and all the area's adjoined to it, that being the cockpit. When I reached said room, there was a man, obviously the pilot, sitting in the main chair, pressing buttons, and seemingly making sure that the ship didn't spontaneously crash into something.

He must have heard my approaching footsteps, because the chair spun around to show me a bearded man in a hat staring up at me. "Huh," he said when he looked at me. "Thought you were someone else…" He arched an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

I shrugged. "Just taking a look around the ship; getting to know her a little better. I take it you're the one who keeps us from flying head-first into the sun?"

He spun his chair around to face the controls again, and said, "Yeah, that's me. Feel free to bask in my reverence. You wouldn't be the first."

I snorted and stepped up beside the chair, leaning on the side of one of the consoles, making sure not to hit any buttons on accident. Wouldn't want to turn off gravity, or something like that.

"Michael Blackstone," I introduced myself. "Professional wizard, and the Citadel's only practicing gumshoe."

He looked up at me, and replied. "Call me Joker. Everyone else does." Then his brows furrowed in thought. "Wait, did you say wizard? Like the 'old man with a big stick' kinda thing?"

I shrugged. "Well, do I look like an old guy to you? Besides, I don't have the pointy hat. But yeah, I mean wizard, as in 'caster of spells'."

The pilot cast me a sidelong look. "Uh, sure, man. Whatever you say." He went back to doing something on the console. "So, what're you doin' on the ship? You with Shepard's ground team?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's the general idea. Mostly she keeps me around for my stunning good looks and charming personality."

"You too?" He replied. Then he looked me up and down, seemingly judging me. "You don't exactly look like much."

"Many thing's are not as they seem. Besides, that's coming from the guy whose job is to sit in a chair all day and push buttons. Something tells me you aren't exactly qualified to make that call."

He rolled his eyes. "Curses, you've seen through my ruse. Now I'll have to kill you in your sleep to prevent you from telling the others." The deadpan delivery of the joke made it all the more entertaining. He looked up at my face, taking his eyes away from the ship's controls. "So, what exactly do you bring to the table." He eyed my hoodie. "Certainly not fashion sense."

I rolled my eyes at him and flicked the tongue of his hat. "Look who's talking, hat-hair. And as for what I can do?" I shrugged. "Well, there's the whole magic thing."

The sidelong look from before came back. "Um. Oookaay…"

I looked at him. "You don't believe me." It wasn't a question.

His reply was instant and with no shame whatsoever. "Nope. Not in the least."

I breathed out a sighed through my nose. This was getting a little old, having to prove my wizardness to everyone. However, it was sadly necessary if I wanted to be taken seriously during this whole manhunt ordeal. There weren't any monsters around to conveniently prove my point, so I would have to go to my fallback. That being, "Do some frickin' magic."

So, I gathered my will, raised my right hand and cupped my fingers, and whispered, "_Stjerners._" A small ball of white light raised out from my hand, hovering around my fingertips. I gently blew on it, and the ball of light started to float lazily around the cockpit, gathering the attention of a few other people out in the 'trenches' (those little side computers that are slightly in the ground).

Joker, for his part, stared at the light, his eyes wide. It did a few laps around the enclosed space, and floated right in front of Joker, it bobbing gently with some unfelt breeze. Then it dimmed slightly and collapsed onto itself, disappearing entirely, leaving the room a little dimmer. My shoulders slumped slightly as I let go of the effort and concentration the spell required. It hadn't just been a bit of illusion magic; it was a combo of illusion and fire magic, to make an actual physical star.

Joker looked up at me, his eyes still slightly wide with wonder, maybe, or astonishment. Or maybe just normal surprise. "What the Hell was that?" He asked.

One corner of my mouth ticked up. "Magic," was my one-word reply.

I heard murmurs, and looked over in the direction of the entrance to the cockpit, and saw three or four people standing there, some with their eyes wide, others with their jaws hanging open slightly.

Have I ever told you that I love being a wizard? Because I do. So much.

There was a sudden flicker in the power of the ship, the lights and consoles blinking as their power fluctuated. Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, but not before everyone was scrambling for their stations to see what the problem was.

Joker also turned his attention back onto his consoles, the magic trick suddenly forgotten. The sound of a voice coming over the intercom shouted, "Joker! What the Hell was that?" The slight Irish accent, which was thicker than normal, was familiar, and labeled the clearly unhappy woman to be Shepard.

"Just a power fluctuation, Commander," Joker replied. "It's like I said, the _Normandy's_ power can sometimes sneak up on you. Everything should be fine."

"We aren't going to fall out of the sky any time soon, are we?" Shepard asked, her voice indicating that she wasn't entirely convinced with Joker's explanation.  
"Shepard, you wound me. With me behind the wheel, my baby will be fine."

There was a moment of silence, then Shepard's voice came back. "Alright. If there's anything wrong with my ship, though, you damn well better tell me. The ground team needs you to drop the mako down onto the planet. Get to it."

The pilot adjusted his hat on his head, and said, "Aye, Aye, Commander." Then he went about pressing more buttons.

"What planet are we over again?" I asked. Due to the crack currently making it's home in my skull, I wasn't at the debriefing for this mission, and I didn't bother to ask where we were until now.

"Therum," Joker supplied.

"Ah." There was a moment of silence between us, and then a thought struck me. "So, what was that about? The whole 'power fluctuation' thing."

The pilot shook his head. "I don't know. It's as though something keeps draining the electrical power of the _Normandy_. It isn't something to worry about right now, but if it keeps up, it might flare at the wrong moment. Could be bad." He looked up at me. "Hey, you think you could run down to Engineering and talk to Adams about it for me? I call him on the comms., but the button is over there, and I can't be bothered."

I looked at him a bit incredulously, but I sighed and said, "Fine. But if the ship blows up, I'm blaming you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why would the ship blow up?"

But I didn't answer, as I was already on my way to the elevator on the deck below.

I don't like being in the Engineering bay.

* * *

I mostly don't like it because I feel so out of place there. I feel like I'm the odd one out, the break in the norm, the one who doesn't belong. I always got that feeling whenever I was in an auto shop, getting my car serviced, just standing around and watching people work on things that were beyond my ability to grasp. I get the same feeling when around that massive drive core. It makes me feel like I'm unwanted there, just someone who's getting in the way of efficient work.

I also don't like it because of the fact that my mere presence could cause the entire drive core to explode.

Magic, whenever in the hands of a mortal practitioner, has always had odd effects on the user's surroundings. In the twenty first century it had a disabling effect on electronics, causing circuits to fry and sparks to fly. Before that there was this thing that, whenever someone was around a wizard, there was a heightened chance of hallucination for the non-practitioner. Before _that_ a wizard's presence would sour milk and cause skin blemishes. Throughout all history, there was an odd effect that magic had on the environment. Only with mortal practitioners, however.

This century, the effect that magic has on the environment is that it doesn't get along with eezo, or active mass effect fields. Depending on the size of the mass effect field, interaction with magic can cause one of three things: explosion, implosion, or straight up failure. The latter of the three is obviously the safest, as all it does is simply turn off the mass effect. Sadly, that only has a one in three chance of happening. The remaining two thirds goes to more violent reactions, that being the explosion and implosion.

The good thing is is that the smaller the mass effect field, the less likely it is to explode. The mass accelerated rounds from a gun, for example, have only a two in fifteen chance of failing, and a zero in ten chance of exploding or imploding. If I were to hex a biotic when his biotics are flared, however, the chance of violent death for the biotic goes back to two in three. The safety window of small mass effect fields isn't that large, and most of them are more likely to explode than just fail.

So I hope you can see my trepidation when entering a room that has a gigantic drive core, which is larger than normal, that is constantly active with a mass effect field, to ensure the ship has FTL flight.

I stood on the main engineering platform, staring up at the spinning drive core. People were all around, talking and pressing seemingly random buttons, all in an effort to make sure that the ship doesn't crash or something. They all seemed to be a bit more frantic in their movements than they otherwise might have been, indicating that the power loss a few minutes ago was probably worse than Joker told the Commander it was.

I saw an aged man around the center of the platform, on a console, that I was recognised to be Chief Engineer Adams. I had met him briefly when I had first went exploring the ship and found my way into Engineering.

Slowly, never taking my eyes off the drive core, I made my way over to the man. When I got close enough, I tapped his shoulder, and he turned to face me.

"Oh, Michael," he said. "Can I help you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Joker sent me down here to ask what the deal was with that power fluctuation a few minutes ago. He would have used the intercom, but he was apparently feeling extra lazy. So he sent me to play messenger."

Adams sighed, and rubbed his eyes with his right hand. "I have no idea what's going on, honestly. For some reason, there isn't enough electricity going into the drive core from the generators we have. The system is automatically designed to designate nonessential energy from the ship into the core, to prevent the ship from falling out of the sky, metaphorically speaking. The only problem with that is that when we ran diagnostics on the generators, we found that they're in perfect working condition. The electricity from the generators just seems to get lost in transit somehow, and it doesn't reach the eezo in the core." He shook his head. "I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong."

I furrowed my brow and looked at the core, with it's space-magic (which is different from real magic) ball of light being held in place by three extended and rotating arms. I scrutinized every inch of the core, using my eyes instead of some program. That's the issue with lots of people nowadays; they forget that sometimes it's best to use your eyes to check something than a computer or something.

At the base of the arm that was just reaching the apex of the rotation, there was a glint of light that shone through the bend of the arm, one that wasn't present on the other arms.

I tapped Adams on the shoulder, and said, "Hey, look right there." I pointed at the offending arm. "At the base of that arm, right as it reaches the top, there's a shine or light or something. The others don't have that."

Adams looked at where I was pointing and squinted his eyes. When the arm in question reached the top, the light seemed to flash, and Adams said, "Yeah, there is. Huh. We'll have to shut down the ship's core to be able to take a good look at it."

I looked at him. "It might be wise to do that now. We wouldn't want the _Normandy_ to fail like that when we need her."

Adams tilted his head in though. "Yeah," he said after a moment's thought. "Hopefully it's just a loose cable that the diagnostic program didn't pick up. We definitely don't need to make full fledged repairs out here in orbit." He looked at one of the crewmembers that was standing around. "Charles, shut the core down. We need to take a look at something."

The engineer looked up at Adams and nodded, moving over to one of the consoles nearby. A few moments later, the core went offline, the bright glow shutting off. A tension in my shoulders that I hadn't even noticed until now eased itself out of me, and I let out a sigh I hadn't realised I was holding. I don't like being around mass effect fields.

The arms stopped spinning, and now that the eezo wasn't lit up like a Christmas tree, I was able to see small blue lights floating around the arm where the light had been. The blue lights buzzed around sporadically in almost bug like movements. They looked vaguely familiar, but I would have to get a closer look if I wanted to be sure.

Adams was about to climb down a ladder that lead to the section where the core was. "Hey, Adams," I said. He looked up at me in question. "Can I tag along? I might see something that you don't."

He looked at me for half a beat, then shrugged. "I don't see why not. Just be careful, and don't touch anything that looks like a cable, button, lever, or pipe."

I gave a mock salute. "Can do, boss."

I followed Adams down the ladder, and went up to the arm of the core that was in question. As we got closer to the base of the arm, the floating blue lights got more distinct, and I could make out small little shapes inside the lights; the things that made the said lights.

Adams came up short when he noticed the things floating around. He squinted his eyes at them and asked, "What are those things?"

I came up next to him and put my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie. "Adams," I said, "I think I know what the problem is. You got yourself an infestation of lightning bugs."

He turned his squint from the bugs to me. "Lightning bugs?"

I nodded. "Yep. Kinda like fire flies, but with electricity and lightning."

He cocked an eyebrow. "You mean those bugs that you find in fields in the middle of the night?"

I shook my head. "You're thinking of torchbugs. Fire flies and torchbugs are two different things. Fire flies are bug-like faeries that come from the Nevernever, that being the spirit world, and are always found near constant sources of fire, volcanoes, forest fires, things like that. They basically eat the energy that fires create; lots of primal energy in fires. They commonly float around the smoke that the fire creates, and are characterised by the glow in the thorax area of their bodies. One day, someone saw torchbugs in the middle of a field and thought, 'Hey, look! Fire flies!' Despite the fact that there wasn't any fire for the fire flies to feed off. Someone simply was too lazy to look for the difference in the two insects. So, as a result, two different creatures were given the same name."

When I finished my little history lesson, I looked over at Adams to see him staring at me as though I suddenly sprouted two heads. Then he said, "I'm sorry, but are you telling me that a faerie, a creature that doesn't exist, was mistaken for torchbugs? That doesn't make much sense."

I gave him a smile. "Yeah, and you probably think I'm a bit nutty now, don't you?" He didn't respond, but he didn't need to. "Humor me, Adams. If I explain what's going on and it turns out to be true, you've got the solution to your problems. If not, then all you've done is give a madman the satisfaction of someone's attention." He still looked skeptical, so I added, "I know what I'm talking about, Adams. Just let me explain, then go see for yourself."

Finally, he sighed and nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

I smiled with teeth and said, "Thank you. Now, similar to fire flies, lightning bugs get their food from a primal energy source. Instead of fire, however, they use lightning or electricity. The problem is is that they need a constant source of it, and lightning by it's nature, is very temporary in the wild. You often won't find them here in the physical world, only the Nevernever, where constant electrical sources are more common- the Nevernever doesn't follow the same rules as the physical world, so stuff like that can easily be found, just have to check the right places. Anyway, even when the lightning bugs find a constant source of electricity, they still need a way to harvest it to eat. So what they do is turn the area around the source into crystals, which are magically capable of capturing the electricity to eat easily. You know that idiom 'lightning in a bottle'? That's where it comes from.

"Anyway, once the electricity is caught in the crystals, they can easily convert it into the primal energy that they eat."

Adams stared at me as I finished my lecture (which I find incredibly fun), and shook his head. "Ridiculous," was all he said.

I jerked my chin at the base of the arm, where the lightning bugs most likely made their crystal nest. "Go look for yourself." He stared at me for another moment, then made his way over to the arm. "Oh," I shouted after him, "and don't piss them off. If they sting you, you'll get shocked with fifty thousand volts!"

He looked back at me, a little wide eyed, but didn't say anything as he kept going. I noticed, however, that his steps had slowed ever so slightly.

He reached the base of the arm, crouched down, and looked in the bend of the arm. After a moment, I heard him mutter, "Utterly ridiculous…" Then he looked back at me and said, "Looks like I owe you an apology."

I smiled. "No need. Actually, this is very advantageous for me, that he lightning bugs showed up here. I kinda need their crystals for something I'm working on. I can get rid of the crystals for you, all that I need to do is get rid of the lightning bugs, so they don't taze me every time I chip away at their hive."

Adams made his way back over to me. "You can? How long will it take."

I shrugged. "Removing the crystals isn't the hard part. That'll take five minutes, at most. It's getting the lightning bugs away from them that's problematic. One of them stinging my is equivalent to a police taser. All of them at once? My brain'll get fried." I looked at Adams standing next to me. "Give me some time to come up with a way to get rid of them."

He nodded. "Just do it quickly. We want the ship back up and running so we can pick the commander up. I'm guessing that you have an hour, two tops."

I nodded at him, then made my way over to my desk to start thinking. I sat in my chair, contemplating how to move the bugs away from the hive.

"No," I muttered to myself. "First things first: how to remove the crystals when the bugs get out of the way."

The best way to get rid of the crystals would be to split it in half like a melon, then pull it off the drive core's arm. The way to do that best is to drop droplets of lemon juice onto the crystals with a fresh lemon (lightning crystals and lemons don't go together. Not sure why). The lemon juice will act like an acid, burn its way to the bottom of the crystals, and make prying them off easier.

The odds of finding a random lemon here on the _Normandy_ were very slim, so it's a good thing that I brought my own in my dufflebag (lemons have lots of uses for some reason. Again, not sure why).

I started to sift through my bag, when I noticed something odd. There was a lone sock sitting in my bag without it's partner.

Now, for the average person, that wouldn't be worth much note. Socks get lost all the time. They get lost in the wash, or maybe you threw them at the hamper and missed, or you drop them somewhere. Socks have a way of turning up the oddest of places.

But, see, I'm not the average person. I know things. Lots of things. Such as, about seventy percent of the time that socks go missing, it isn't because they get lost in the dryer.

It's because sock faeries take them.

Yeah. Sock faeries. I couldn't make this stuff up.

A plan started to formulate in my head, and I gathered the materials I would need to get it done.

I just got incredibly lucky. Lightning bugs usually just attack the people who get near their crystal hives. But, for some reason, they have a deathly fear of all the little folk; the pixies and dew drop faeries and the like.

This discovery of a sock faerie just made my job a lot easier.

* * *

I walked into Engineering with an added weight on my right shoulder. Everyone I passed gave me odd stares, and some people started to whisper to the guy next to them.

Adams must have heard all the hoopla, because he turned around, stared at the thing on my shoulder, and asked, "Michael. What is that on your shoulder?"

I turned my head slightly to look at the point of interest, then back to Adams and replied, "'s a sock faerie."

True enough, there was a thirteen inch human-like being standing on my shoulder, holding on my ear for support, dressed in nothing but a sock (_my _sock, I feel I should add) with hole cut out for her arms, legs, and tiny fae wings.

Elanora, as the faerie was called, was the sock faerie that took the socks of the people on board the _Normandy_. She looked like an athletic youth, with a slight nimbus of color around her that seemed to change depending on the mood she was in, the current color being yellow. She had silky hair of an off white, with random strands floating around her head. She was looking around the Engineering bay with unabashed curiosity, watching all the people go about their business.

Adams, for his part, looked right back at the Wee faerie when started to stare at him. "A sock faerie," he echoed.

I nodded, jostling Elanora a bit. "Yeah. This is Elanora, the _Normandy's _resident sock faerie. She's going to be helping us with the little lightning bug problem we have."

Elanora scowled, and said, in a comical and high-pitched voice, "Mister Engineer, I swear that I'll get rid of the pests for you. They're as much a nuisance for me, in my home, as they are for you, in your workplace." She bowed at the waist, still holding my ear for support, and added. "You have my word."

I blinked at that. Faeries, when they give their word, _always_ adhere to the letter of the promise. When they give their word that they're going to do something, they _damn well _do it, or die trying. Of course, you can only trust a faerie to stick the letter of the promise, not the spirit of it.

However, Elanora just gave her word freely, meaning that not only will she do what she said, but also that their isn't any hidden agenda, or any strings attached (not that you really need to worry about stuff like that with the Wee Folk). She was doing this gladly.

I walked up next to Adams, and pointed at the lightning bugs. "Over there, Elanora, do you see them?"

Her scowl deepened. "Yessir, I do, Mister Wizard." Then she jumped off my shoulder, her little wings buzzing madly. She made a dash for the base of the arm where the lightning bugs were, and made a slight hand gesture. There was a quick flash of light, and the little blue lights that were the bugs were scattering around the entire room, fluttering wildly in all directions.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look up and stare at the lightshow that was happening near the ceiling. We all clearly saw Elanora fly right for a large group of the bugs, only to make that slight hand motion again. The flash of light went off again, and the group of flies that Elanora was heading for were gone, with only a small patch of clear, gelatinous slime covering the wall where they had been.

Ectoplasm; matter from the Nevernever.

Elanora did this maneuver a multiple of other times to all the other groups of lightning bugs around the bay, leaving ectoplasm wherever the bugs had disappeared. This took around a few minute, as she made sure that she got every single last one of the things, her face still set in a scowl as she searched the room. When she saw that none of the bugs remained, with all of them being cast back into the Nevernever where they came from, she let out a huff of satisfied breath, and flew back over to me.

"Mister Wizard," she said, floating in front of my face, "my job is done. You will uphold your end of our deal, yes?"

I nodded. "Of course. Thank you, Elanora. We couldn't have done this without you. And feel free to keep the sock you stole. Consider it a token of good will."

She beamed at me, then whizzed off to God knows where.

I turn to face Adams, to see him staring after the departed pixie. "That," he said after a moment, "was almost surreal." He turned to me. "That was a faerie, you said?"

I nodded. "Yup. A sock faerie, one of the wyld fae. She's a rather curious sort. I didn't even have to bait her into a trap to get her to talk to me."

"So, all those things- the myths and legends and things- are real? Vampires and the like?"

"Pretty much, yeah," I told him.

He regarded me for a second. "What does that make you, then?" He asked after a moment.

I smiled. "That makes me a wizard."

He continued to stare at me, then shook his head. "Surreal, I tell you." He took a deep breath and seemed to get his thoughts back into order. "So, what do we do about those crystals?"

"I've got just the thing," I said, and reached into my pocket to pull out a lemon.

He squinted at it, clearly not convinced. "A lemon?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

He shifted his skeptical gaze from the citrus fruit to my face.

I held up my hands in a defensive gesture. "Hey, man. I don't know why this stuff works, only that it does. And I've been right about everything so far. What's to say I'm wrong about this? Trust the wizard, man, he knows what he's talking about."

He simply shook his head, but said, "Get going. We need this core online as soon as possible."

I nodded, and went down the ladder to the core's arm, where upon I split the lemon in half with my dagger, and squeezed out as much lemon juice as possible. As soon as the juice touched the blue crystals, which absolutely hummed with energy, both magical and electrical, the juice acted as predicted, somehow turning into an acid that ate it's way through the spine of the crystal cluster, making enough room for someone to pry it off the base of the arm. I stuck my knife in the newly created crevice, and started to pry the crystals off the surface of the drive core.

With a bit of effort, the two sides came off, and I picked them up in my hands, putting my dagger back into it's sheath.

I was right when I said that they were humming with power. Now that I had actual skin contact with the crystals, it allowed my wizard senses to pick up just how much energy was, which was a lot. The _Normandy _hasn't been in active service long, I knew, but there was still an abnormally large output from the engine of the ship than others like it. It was enough for the lightning bugs to get attracted to the generators on the _Normandy _a lot faster, compared to a regular ship.

The lightning that was held in the crystals that the bugs made contained a very large amount of power, that equivalent of a lightning bolt every cubic centimeter (roughly, anyway). They would be very useful for a little project that I've been trying to get working, but have lack the key component: contained lightning. Should be very helpful.

I stood back up, put the crystals in my hoodie pocket, and made my back to Adams. "Okay," I said when I got to the top of the ladder. "You can turn the thing on now." I made sure that, when Adams started to press some buttons, that I was a good distance away, as not to cause some kind of explosion.

The core turned on, the eezo started to glow, and the arms started to spin. Adams continued to stare at a screen in front of him for a moment, then started to smile.

"Well, I'll be damned. Power levels are back in the average range." He turned to look at me. "Miracle worker is what you are."

I smiled, and turned to leave the Engineering bay. "Maybe a little."

* * *

Half an hour later, I was back at my desk, working with the lightning crystals that I just got, trying to shape them into what I needed, when the intercom of the ship sounded with Shepard's voice, "_All members of the ground team, report to the comm room._" Then it clicked off.

I looked up at the ceiling, grunted, then put the crystals back onto my desk and stood up, making my way towards the elevator, which Wrex was already standing in front of.

We nodded at each other. When you Soul Gaze someone, there's always this mutual understanding between the two of you. It comes from seeing someone at their basest.

Tali joined us a second later, wringing her hands together nervously, clearly intimidated by Wrex (and maybe me). The elevator doors opened, and we all stepped inside.

An eternity later, we stepped out of the elevator, went up the stairs to the CIC, and made our way into the comm room, where Shepard, Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, and an unknown asari were waiting for us.

Everyone spread out into the room, taking any of the seats available. I took one right next to Shepard, who looked at me and said, "Nice of you to join us."

Before I could make a comeback, Joker said over the intercom. "Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulphur. The _Normandy _isn't equipt to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for future reference."

The asari's eyes got a little wide with incredulity. "We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?"

"Better to laugh at a bad situation than to let the despair or tension crush you," I said. "Ease the tension. Besides, I'm fairly sure that snark is the only social skill that Joker has. He's like a child; he doesn't know any better."

She looked at me, her brow furrowed slightly. "I see. It must be a human thing." I lifted any eyebrow slightly at that. Poor humor is a coping mechanism for pretty much every species. Maybe this girl doesn't get much social interaction.

She continued, turning her attention back to Shepard. "I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there. And not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me. Or dragged me off to Saren." Makes me wonder which of the two would be a worse fate.

"What did Saren want with you?" Kaidan pipped in. "Do you know something about the Conduit?"

I was starting to get a little lost. I had no idea what this Conduit was, or who this asari across from me is. Serves me right for not reading the reports Shepard gave me earlier.

The asari answered Kaidan's question promptly. "Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. That is my real area of expertise. I have spent fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them."

Shepard blinked. "Just how old are you, exactly?" She asked.

The asa- you know what, Imma just call her Blue in absence of her real name. Blue looked down, seemingly embarrassed. "I hate to admit it, but I am only a hundred and six."

"Damn!" Ashley said. "I hope I look that good when I'm your age."

"So, pretty young, then?" I said.

Blue nodded. "Among the asari, I am barely more than a child."

Shepard looked at me. "Young? Compared to what?"

I quirked an eyebrow. "Aside from the aforementioned asari and the krogan?" I shrugged. "Lots of supernatural creatures live for centuries. Take Malik, for example. Before he died and became a Black Court vamp, he served in World War Two. Survived the storming of the beaches of Normandy, from what I've heard. That makes him… Well, I'm not going to do the math, but it makes him at least two centuries old, I think." I shook my head. "But this is off topic." I looked back at Blue. "You were talking about the Proteans?"

The asari nodded. "Because of my youth, other asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans."

"I've got my own theories about why the Protheans disappeared," Shepard told her.

"With all due respect, Commander," Blue said, "I have heard every theory out there. The problem is finding evidence to support them. The Protheans left remarkably little behind.

I snorted. "A civilization as big as the Protheans doesn't just up and disappear. They spanned the entire galaxy. If there isn't much left behind, it's because someone doesn't want that stuff fo be found."

Blue nodded her agreement. "But the incredible part is is that I have found evidence that shows that the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began a long time ago."

Shepard tilted her head. "What cycle? What are you talking about?"

"The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction," Blue explained. "Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down. Only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their empire spanned the entire galaxy. Yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of those who came before. Their greatest achievements- the mass relays and the Citadel- are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like all the other forgotten civilizations throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared. I have dedicated my life to finding out why."

One side of Shepard's mouth ticked up. "Well, search no longer. They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines called the Reapers."

Blue's eyes bugged out a bit. "The- The Reapers? But I've never heard of- How do you know this? What evidence do you have?"

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a vision into my brain. I'm still trying to sort out what it all means."

I blinked at that and turned to look at the Irish beauty. "Wait, a vision? And you didn't bother to tell me? I'm a wizard! Visions are, like, what I do!"

Shepard rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, oh. Yeah. That."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, that." Then I got an idea in my head. "Shepard, when we're done here, come see me at my desk. I wanna try something."

She gave me a questioning look, but nodded. "Sure." She turned back to Blue. "Liara, please continue." So _that _was her name!

"That makes sense; a vision. The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is extremely rare. No wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance to acquire a working beacon- even a badly damaged one- is worth almost any risk. But the beacons were only programed to interact with Prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would have been confused, unclear."

Liara seemed to think for a moment, then continued her line of thought, something like slight awe in her voice. "I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed in the process. You must be incredibly strong willed, Commander."

I saw Kaidan shake his head. "This isn't helping us find Saren. Or the Conduit."

Liara bobbed her head apologetically. "Of course, you are right. I am sorry. My scientific curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately, I do not have any information that could help you find the Conduit. Or Saren."

The Commander seemed to think for a moment, then said, "I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture. But I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along."

Liara bowed her head in gratitude. "Thank you, Commander. Saren might come after me again. I cannot think of anywhere safer than here on your ship. And my knowledge of the Protheans might be useful later on."

Wrex grunted. "And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts."

Shepard nodded and stood up. Liara mimicked her. The two women stepped toward each other, and Shepard stuck out her hand to shake. "Good to have you on the team, then, Liara."

The asari smiled. "Thank you, Commander. I am very gratef-" She started to sway on her feet, and Shepard reached out to steady her. Liara shook her head, and tried to gather herself, saying, "Whao. I am afraid I am feeling a bit light headed."

"Must have been a while since you last ate. Or slept," I said. "You should go see Dr. Chakwas, down in the med bay."

She shook her head. "It is probably just mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans' true fate. I need some time to process all this. Still, it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional. It will give me the chance to think things over. Are we finished here, Commander?"

Shepard nodded. "Go see the doctor." Then she looked around the room. "The rest of you… dismissed!"

Everyone nodded, and got up to leave.

I walked up next to Shepard, and said, "Whenever is convenient for you, come see me. Like I said, I wanna try something."

She nodded. I left with the crowd.

* * *

The sound of the elevator opening drew my attention up from my desk. Stepping out of the lift, Shepard sauntered over to me, and I couldn't help but notice the sway in her hips as she did.

She must have seen me notice, because she smirked, and made her swaying even more profound. It was incredibly distracting. When she got close enough, she asked, "Want to get down to business, or are you just fine with staring a little more?"

I looked up at her face, saw the smirk that was there, and instantly recognised the look in her eyes. Shepard was the kind of girl that appreciates being appreciated.

"Why not mix both business and pleasure?" I asked as a reply, to which her smirk only widened.

She walked up to my desk, rested her hip on the edge, facing me, and folded her arms. Her smirk was still in place as she said, "You've got me here now, big guy. What are you gonna do with me?"

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "Oh, how coy." I my face turned serious, and it must have thrown her off a bit, because her smirk faltered ever so slightly. "I want to see that vision you mentioned in the comm room."

Her smirk disappeared, only to be replaced with a skeptical eyebrow being lifted. "And just how do you plan to do that? It only exists in my head, remember?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember. But, being a wizard, that won't be a problem."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I can quite literally enter your mind and watch the vision from within your memory."

She looked surprised at that. "You can do that? Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I can. I might even be able to make more sense out of it than you can, give my talent for comprehending things that most people don't even know exist." I shrugged. "But I need your permission to do it, otherwise I'd be breaking one of the Laws."

"You've mentioned those before; these 'Laws'. What are they?"

"The Seven Laws of Magic," I told her. "They're basically laws to magic that prevent people from abusing their power overly much. If I were to enter your head without permission, let alone go looking for something in there, that would be breaking the third law of magic: _thou shalt not invade the mind of another_. Performing any magic that goes against the Laws is considered an act of black magic, a _very _corrupting force. I would need your permission to enter your mind, and for you to seek out the vision, for me not to break any of the laws."

She tilted her head. "What's the punishment if you break one of the laws?"

"It starts from beheadings, and get worse from there."

Her eyes went wide. "I don't want you getting killed over this, Michael."

I shook my head. "That's why I do it with your permission. If you let me do it, willingly, then I'm not breaking any of the laws. Just walking a fine line." Besides, I was pretty sure that there was no one to charge me with breaking one of the Laws, anyway.

"If you're sure…"

I nodded, and got up. "I am." I motioned at my chair. "Now, sit."

She did, and I rummaged through my duffel bag until I found a long candle, the stand for it, and a box of matches. I set the candle down on the center of the desk, struck a match, and lit the candle. Then I turned the chair Shepard was sitting in from it's side-facing position, to face the desk directly (doing so elected a cute little squeak of surprise from the Commander, one I wouldn't have guessed her capable of making).

I stood behind her, and asked, "Ready?"

She nodded her head, electing to say nothing.

Then I put my hands on the sides of her head, my index and middle fingers resting on her temples, and the ring and pinkie on her cheekbones. I brought my will forth, extended it through my fingers, and into her mind, whispering to Shepard, "Then relax, Kyla. Relax your mind, and focus on my voice. Stare at the flame, and ease away the tension. Relax, Kyla. Relax."

I felt her physically slacken under my hands, and the natural defenses that all living creatures have in their minds become lax. I pushed my will into her mind, and we both delved into her mental landscape.

* * *

I stood in a dark, empty room, where the blackness stretched on seemingly forever. Immediately overhead was a wide lamplight that illuminated the area around me, without atually showing anything other than the color black.

"Michael?" Shepard's voice came from behind me, and I turned to face her.

She looked very much the same in her mental form, when compared to her physical one. The way you see yourself is different from the way other people see you, after all. But for Shepard, the differences were only slight.

It was mostly the way she held herself. She didn't stand as straight, her shoulders were a little hunched, and she seemed to be in a state of just waking up, with her fire red hair slightly bedraggled. Inside her own head, she didn't need to put on the appearance of the paragon commander. She didn't need to be the hero in here.

"Yeah," I told her. "It's me."

She tilted her head, some red strands falling onto her face. "You look… a little different."

I nodded. "Your mental self doesn't have to be the same as your physical self. What you appear like in somewhere like here is what you subconsciously see yourself as."

"Oh," she said. Then her eyes were drawn to the hollow of my throat. "What's that?"

I looked down at myself, and saw a necklace there that hadn't been before.

It was a simple leather strand that wrapped around the silver coin that contained the fallen angel that haunted my head. And for some reason, I was wearing it.

That's not foreboding, or anything.

"Not sure," I lied. "Anyway, let's get to business."

She nodded. "Right. So, what are we doing?"

"You need to get the memory of the vision, then bring it here."

Shepard tilted her head. "And how do I do that?"

"It's your head." I shrugged. "You tell me."

Her brow furrowed, and she seemed to concentrate on something. When nothing happened after a few minutes, she let out a breath of irritation, and took a step forward, probably to start pacing.

Her foot, however, got caught on something invisible. Shadows seemed to move out of the way, and a foot locker appeared out of the darkness.

It was a simple grey locker, with dents and scratches all along it's surface. The thing about the dents, is that they were going _out_, as though something from the inside was trying to burst out. There was a large padlock on the front of it, which was rusted and old, showing that whatever was inside the locker needed only a little more effort to burst out.

I looked up from the foot locker, to see Shepard staring at the thing oddly.

"Have you had any nightmares recently?" I asked.

She shook her head, still staring at the locker.

"Well, if we open this thing, it'll be like opening Pandora's box," I told her. "I imagine that whatever's in there will try to ravage your psyche with nightmares." I gave her an intent stare. "Are you _absolutely positive_ that you're okay with me looking at this?"

She tore her eyes away from the locker, and looked me in the eyes. I shifted my gaze to the tip of her nose. "If I'm going to have you on my team, I need to be able to trust you," she explained. "I need to know that I can trust you with my body and mind both in and outside of combat." One corner of her mouth ticked up. "Granted, I didn't think that it would be quite this literal, but if we want to build that trust, we need to start somewhere."

I stared at her, a little surprised. "Uh, thanks. Not that many people would be comfortable with me going through their head." I shrugged and looked down. "You'd be surprised how many people don't trust me enough to even give me their real names- or maybe you wouldn't be." I shook my head, and looked back at Shepard's face. "You ready?"

She nodded, that half smile still on her face.

I nodded. "Okay. Open it."

She reached into her pocket and drew out an old key, one that I bet wasn't there before. She bent over and stuck the key in the lock, twisting it, and the lock fell to the ground. She pulled up the lid of the locker, and we both stared in, the memories flowing ou-

…

I-

… Ye Gods, but I wasn't ready for this.

The memories overwhelmed me with pictures of death and destruction, with sights of synthetics and organics and beings in between fighting and killing and dying by the _millions upon billions_. There were screeches and screaming, and terrible crushing sounds as bones and metals were destroyed by massive weight- be they buildings or something else, I had no clue. Blood and gore were scattered everywhere, and civilians and soldiers died as they ran away from the overwhelming enemy force. And as the memories ended, and my mind started to retreat back into my own body, there was an awful, heavy, despairing noise that sounded, a massive screech that dragged serrated edges against your ears.

My mind slinked back to my body, and I gasped as the weight of the memories settled into my head.

Something in the back of my head seemed to click, and I fell bonelessly to the ground as the world faded out around me.

The last thing I saw before unconsciousness took me were Shepard's worried green eyes.

* * *

**A/N: Hell, man, this chapter kicked my _ass_. About six thousand words in, I kinda lost my steam, and had to wait a good while for it to come back, and even then, this chapter is more filler than anything else.**

**Still though, I hope the length of the chapter makes up for the wait that it took to write this. Nearly 15,000 words, excluding this author's notes. Longest chapter yet.**

**Regarding that scene with Lasciel, I'm not sure if that constitutes this story to have an M rating... Probably does, though. Eh, didn't really intend to have it like that. Just kinda came out that way.**

**Anyway, a guest review brought it to my attention that I should explain why the geth don't have souls. In the previous chapter, I said it was because they were just machines, but the review countered with the argument that all living organisms are machines, physically. But that's just the thing. The geth are physical beings, not spiritual ones. The were forged from metal, and thus didn't go through the process that mortal organics go through when they get a soul. The geth don't have the part of them that is more than just physical, and thus no soul, despite that touching scene between Legion and Tali in the third game. Hope I explained this topic properly. Any questions, feel free to leave a review.**

**Next chapter, we're going to be tackling the Noveria mission, with a bit extra at the beginning. Hopefully, it'll be out soon.**

**If you've got questions, comments, concerns, or criticisms, you go right ahead and leave a review.**

**And as always...**

**Thanks For Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy**


	5. The Bureaucratic Rainbow

When my senses came back to me, I found myself in a dark vastness, just as I had been when I was in Shepard's mind. The only difference that was worth note was a long wooden table that stood in the middle of the lighted area, the polished surface gleaming. There were three chairs surrounding it; two either end, and one off to the side.

I had no idea why I was here, to be honest. To retreat into one's own mind isn't something that is easily done. It can happen, sure, but it is usually a decision that the hindbrain, the unconscious mind, makes when it needs to say something important. And even then, it doesn't happen to most people for their entire lives.

I knew that I wasn't alone in my head, that my subconscious is an entity in me that, if I made a real effort, I could actually contact. There was also the fact that Lasciel had made her home in my head, and she would take whatever opportunity to talk and tempt me that she could get. So, it was odd that I was completely alone in the mental space I stood in.

"Hello?" I called out into the darkness. The sound of my voice sounded a little insulated when I spoke, as though the sound had nothing to bounce off of to come back to my ears.

"Hold on," a familiar male voice said back calmly. "Be there in a second."

Off to the right of me, a form entered the overhead lights rays.

It was me.

Well, it wasn't me exactly, but it was someone who looked almost exactly like me.

He stood at roughly six foot five, had dark hair, and bangs that reached his eyebrows with the back reaching his lower neck. He also wore my coat and hoodie combo, with the intricate spell designs of red-to- purple coloring, but had loose, dark colored jeans. Around his neck was a leather cord that wrapped around a tarnished silver coin, turning the change into a necklace. His dull green eyes stared at me, and a look of frustration ran through his face.

"You just had," he said, "to go into her head and try to figure out that vision, didn't you? You even know what you just did to yourself?"

"Did to us," I corrected myself. "What I did to us. You're on the same boat as I am. And what do you mean 'what I just did to us'? What happened?"

Myself rolled his eyes. "You know, you're just like him in _so _many ways. Including, but not limited to, not knowing just what the Hell you're doing, yet doing it anyway."

I knew exactly who my id was talking about. "Hey! I resent that! And besides that makes _us _so much like him. We are the same person, dumbass."

"Ye Gods, I know," my double replied. "But my point is is that you did something you really shouldn't have. You took in a vision, sure, I get that, you've done that plenty of times. But the difference between _this _vision and the other ones is that you're mind isn't able to comprehend it."

I blinked. "What?"

Other-Me snorted. "Think about it. Shepard got the vision from a Prothean beacon, a species of people who lived fifty thousand years ago. You honestly think that the Protheans had the same physiology as you? Their minds more than likely worked differently than ours do. Their thoughts are quite literally alien to our. Get it?"

I nodded. "I follow you. Finish the thought."

"If you, right now, were to try to read chinese, it would only look like a bunch of symbols and vague letters, right?" He continued. "Well, same principle applies. I- that is, your subconscious- can sort of see vague picture of what the vision was supposed to be, but I don't understand it because we, as a whole, don't understand the Prothean way of thinking. Our mind has no frame of reference for how to grasp the alien thoughts."

I got it. "Oh."

Myself rolled his eyes. "Yeah. 'Oh'. And the problem is is that it's _my _job to make sure that _you _have a complete understanding of what the vision is. I can't stop working on it until we get the whole picture. You're going to have nightmares about the parts that you can understand."

My brow furrowed. "Why nightmares? Just what is in that vision?"

My double shrugged. "Like I said, I was only able to decipher pieces of it in the short amount of time between you seeing it and us talking. Back in the waking world, Shepard just got you into the elevator to get to Chakwas. Anyway, what I was able to get doesn't look good. Simply put, it was death. Just death, on a scale that hasn't been seen in a _very _long time. Some sort of synthetics, maybe the geth, maybe not, go around and kill _everything_, with no restrictions. Whether the vision is a warning, or an augury, or something else, I don't know. I'll be sure to tell you though. Probably through more nightmares."

Shit. None of that sounded good. Really, I was hoping that the vision was a warning of something that had already come and gone, but if it were an augury, that would end very poorly for everyone involved. I mean, death on the massive scale that I saw in the vision? Yeah, not good. And it doesn't help that my own subconscious is going to be haunting my sleep for the next while.

I still had another question. "Okay, this is interesting and important, I'm sure, but I have to ask. Why am I unconscious?"

Other-Me grunted. "It's like I told you. The Prothean thoughts are alien ones in our head. We have no place to put them. So, I knocked you out so that I could focus on either finding a place to put the memory of it or getting rid of the vision entirely. Honestly, you're lucky that we're a wizard's mind. Most people would be out for a good while, if they woke up at all. And assuming they did, odds would be better than good that they wouldn't be all there, you know? Shepard is only still functioning because she got fucking lucky. Anyone else, they'd probably have to go through rigorous therapy."

I nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Good," my double said. "Now that that's taken care of, we can get to the second reason I'm here."

"What's that?"

Id-Me looked me straight in the eye as he said, "Lasciel." My eyes were drawn to the coin that dangled from Other-Me's neck.

I looked him back in the eye. "Nothing to talk about."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you say that, yet I've noticed that you have yet to get rid of the coin. If you really didn't want it, you would have found a way to get rid of it sooner."

I scowled. "I haven't gotten rid of it because I don't want some random schmuck coming along and picking the thing up because I did a poor job at getting rid of the coin."

"If you really made the effort," my double countered. "You would have easily found a way to get rid of the coin. You're rather resourceful when you want to be." He motioned at the table that sat nearby. "Sit. I have the table here for a reason. Best to actually use it."

I nodded, and sat at one end of the table, my double sitting at the other.

"As I was saying," he continued, "I've noticed something else too."

I raised an eyebrow, asking, "What's that?"

I leaned forward a bit, probably for dramatic effect. "You took the coin _with _you. It's on the _Normandy_ right now, in that metal box on your desk." He tilted his head to the side. "The coin would have been safest back at your apartment. Yet you brought it with. Care to explain?"

I opened my mouth to respond, paused for a moment, then shut it. I really didn't have an answer for that, to be frank. I'm not sure why I didn't just leave Lasciel's coin back home. I just… did.

My double leaned back and held up a hand. "Let me answer that for you. It was me."

My eyes snapped to him. "What?"

Other-Me rolled his eyes. "_You _might not want the power that Lasciel provides, but _I _certainly do." An excited look crossed his face. "Just _imagine _what we could do with the power and knowledge that Lasciel could give us. Imagine what we could get done, the monsters we could kill, the people we could save!"

"All at the low, low price of our soul, man!" I countered. "You want to be her bitch just as little as I do. The first taste is free, you know that. Then it gets worse and worse. Sooner or later, we won't be able to ever say no to whatever plans that she makes, and we'll just be her meat puppet. Besides, there is such a thing as having _too _much power. I'm not confident that I could use that much power responsibly. I want to get rid of that damn coin, and everything with it."

Myself narrowed his eyes as he said, "If you're so dead set on getting rid of the thing, then space it."

I was about to give a response, probably to ask what he meant, when suddenly the shadow of the fallen angel in question appeared off to the side of the table. She stood there, poised and elegant, just as beautiful as she had been before, but with more clothes- a white tunic that reached mid-thigh, belted with a silver rope.

"Gentlemen," she said, "I do not mean to interrupt, but we have a situation that requires your attention."

I cast a glare her way, while my double did the same. I noticed, however, his stare was a bit more… hungry, than mine was.

He is, after all, a manifestation of my more base desires. And only an idiot wouldn't be able to tell that Lasciel was beautiful.

That bitch.

"What is it?" I asked her.

She considered her answer before she spoke. "There is a… presence that is trying to worm it's way into your mind, my host. I believe it to be that asari professor, Liara?"

I narrowed my eyes in question, then looked at my double, Spocking an eyebrow as I did. "Any idea why, or even how, Liara is getting into our head?"

He shrugged. "Probably to see if you're okay. Like I said, the vision would crush a lesser mind. Shepard is lucky she woke up as fast as she did, having no experience with foreign thoughts embedding themselves in her mind. You should be waking up soon, actually. But as for how?" He shrugged again. "Probably that mind melding thing the asari can do. Rudimentary psychic connections."

I wrinkled my nose. "Yeah, I can feel her fumbling to find a foothold in our mind." It was true. It felt very similar to that feeling that you get when you feel a fly buzzing around your head. "They should leave this kind of stuff to the pros. She's just no good at this."

"In her favor," Lasciel interjected. "I am assisting your collective mind in fending her off. Were I not here, the asari would have a better chance of invading your mind. As it is, my host, the melding process consists of syncing your nervous systems to a unity. I can only stop her from entering for so long. Of course, once she enters your mind, she will not be able to see the pure information that she is used to with others."

I tilted my head at that. "Why?"

"You have the mind of a wizard, my host," Lasciel responded. "Amongst the supernatural circles, the mind of a wizard does not vary too much from that of an average mortal. But from one mortal to another? Their minds are like log cabins, where yours is more similar to a castle, to use a simile. By and large, your mind is harder to infiltrate than that of an average mortal, given your trainings and disciplines."

Interesting. "So, it won't protect me from a being, say, such as you, but from an asari mind meld, I can hold out longer than anyone else."

Lasciel nodded. "Indeed, my host."

I hummed in thought, going deeper into the chain of logic that presented. I would have gotten farther than just the initial facts, but the presence that was trying to invade my head suddenly found a foothold, and latched onto my psyche. It tried to push past my mental defences, but found no way of getting by.

I rolled my eyes, and asked to both Lasciel and my double. "Just how long has she been attempting this?"

"About ten seconds," my double supplied. "For pretty much every other meld, it's instantaneous. For it to take this long is practically unheard of, I'm pretty sure."

I looked at the two others in my head. "Should we let her in?"

My double merely shrugged, saying, "You're the one who calls the shots." And Lasciel nodded her head in agreement with Other-Me.

I thought about it for a moment, then decided to let her in. It would be a way to explain the whole 'wizard' thing to Liara, anyway. She may not have mentioned the fact that I called myself a wizard in the comm. room, but there is also the very real possibility that she had no idea what a wizard _was_. I mean, Garrus didn't when I had first met him. I had to explain it to him.

I relaxed my mental barriers, and the presence slipped past the cracks as soon as it could fit. Then, seemingly stepping out of the shadows, the Prothean expert appeared, looking around in wonder.

When she spotted me, she said, "Michael! What is going on? I tried to meld with you, but there was something preventing me from entering your mind. Is something the matter?" she looked around again, and added, "And also, where are we? We shouldn't be able to talk like this. I should be seeing just pure information."

I folded my arms across my chest. "That was me. This is my head, my sanctus sanctorum. If I don't want you in here, you aren't going to be entering." Wish that could be said for _everyone_. "And as for where we are?" I shrugged. "Just a landscape my subconscious over there," I nodded my head at him, and he jerked his chin in greeting, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "made so that we could have a talk. Now," I raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here."

She started to wring her hands nervously, casting her eyes between the three beings before her: me, Other-Me, and Lasciel. "Well, Shepard entered the med-bay carrying you. She said that you entered her mind and saw the vision that she got from the beacon." She sounded like she didn't believe that part. "I'm not so sure about that last part," called it, "but Shepard was nervous that you might have hurt yourself. When I told her that I could meld with you to see how you were, she asked me to. I tried, and here we are."

Aw, Shepard did care! How nice. Anyway, I said to the asari, "As you can see, I'm fine. Just wasn't prepared for the shock of the vision is all."

Liara's non existent eyebrows went up. "You mean you actually saw the vision in the Commander's head? How did you accomplish such a thing?"

"Magic," was my reply.

A line appeared in Liara's brow. "Magic?"

I nodded. "Stick around, you'll see what I mean. Anyway, I should be waking up soon, so if you could leave, that'd be great."

Liara nodded, then paused, looking in Lasciel's direction. The fallen angel gave a lazy, predatory smile to the professor, and walked up behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist, her chin rested on my shoulder. She didn't look away from Liara as she did this, and that sharp smile didn't waver in the slightest.

Liara gulped. "Um. Michael… who is that?" She pointed timidly at the fallen angel.

I closed my eyes, my hands balling into fists at the shadow's actions. What she just did was a simple act of possession, basically threatening Liara that, if she tried anything in my mind, she would be punished swiftly and viciously. After all, I doubt Lasciel wants competition when it comes to someone who meddles in my head.

I was hoping that Liara wouldn't comment on Lasciel at all. I wanted to keep her presence as down low as possible. Wrex already knew, and that was more people that I was comfortable with knowing. I don't need people going around claiming that I might not be in control of my actions because of the fallen angel.

My eyes still closed, I responded to Liara's question, saying, "Please, don't bring her into this."

Lasciel murmured a sleepy laugh. "Oh, my host," she said, "I was involved the moment this child tried to enter your mind."

"Michael, who is she?" Liara pressed. "Is she another part of your mind? Is she something else?"

"Something else, alright," I muttered. I spoke louder as I said, "Liara, seriously, don't. Don't involve her more than she is. For your safety, please."

Liara looked more worried at that. "Is she dangerous?"

"More than you could possibly imagine…" the fallen angel whispered. She started to take a step around me to approach the asari.

I reacted to that quickly. I threw my hand forward, exerted my will, and forced Liara out of my head, preventing her from being subject to the fallen angel's attention. Safer that way for her.

I spun to face her, saying, my voice firm, "You will not touch them." By them, I meant those on the _Normandy_.

Before she could respond, I turned to face my double. "Can you wake me up?" I asked him. He nodded, and I said, "Do it."

I turned back to face the fallen angel and said, "They are under my protection. You will not even think of touching them, even if you could."

"'Under your protection'," the shadow echoed just before I left. As I started to wake, I heard her whisper, "For what good that will do you…"

My eyes were assaulted with light.

* * *

You wanna know the single most difficult part about waking up is? Opening your eyes.

Opening mine gave me the sight of a glaring fluorescent light above me. The sounds of medical equipment were softly sounding into the room, and I could also hear the talk of three people.

"-ere was something else, though," the soft, somewhat nervous voice that was claimed to be Liara's said.

"What was it?" The slight Irish burr of that voice was an identifier to Shepard.

"There was another presence in his mind," Liara said. "It looked like a human woman, but there was something that told me… something that told me she wasn't. She just seemed so… malicious."

"What do you mean? What did she look like?" An English accented voice asked. Chakwas, then.

There was a slight pause before Liara responded, as though she were considering her words. "She… blond hair, rather tall, pale skin, blue eyes. But there was something about her, the way she held herself, that said she did not care for my presence. And there is also the fact that she seemed very possessive over Michael."

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked.

"She pressed herself against his back when I took notice of her, and the way she stared at me seemed to be a warning of some kind," Liara explained. "I had the feeling that she was warning me not to meddle in Michael's mind, otherwise there would be consequences."

I figured I had heard enough. I sat up in the bed I was laying in, and said, "And there still might be." I gave Liara a rather hard look, not openly hostile, but a clear warning. "I don't like it when people go inside my head without my permission. There are some places where that can get you beheaded."

Shepard tilted her head. "Wait, an asari mind meld is breaking one of your Laws?"

"'Thou shalt not invade the mind of another'," I quoted. "I didn't give Liara permission to go into my head. She didn't do any harm, but that doesn't really matter with the Laws. You break them, you get punished, no matter the circumstances."

While I rubbed my forehead to get the tiredness out, Shepard shook her head. "No, nevermind. It's not important. What I really want to know is why you're up so soon. When I saw the vision, I was out for fifteen hours."

"Yeah," I said, "and you got lucky you woke up at all. The vision is meant for a Prothean mind, not ours. Most people would have gone batshit crazy from seeing the vision. I'm up so soon, though, because I've got practical experience in dealing with alien thoughts in my head."

"So, what did you see? Could you make anything out?"

I shrugged. "Not much. I was able to figure out it was a warning of some kind. Other than that, there wasn't much that I saw that you probably didn't."

Shepard crossed her arms and flared her nostrils in irritation. "Damn. And to think I carried your lazy ass up here for nothing." She shook her head. "But there's something else. Liara said she saw something else in your mind. Some woman. Anything you want to tell us?"

I looked at her for a moment, trying to think of some kind of lie that would get me out of this situation. When nothing came to me, I just decided to wing it. "Nope," I said. "Not that I can think of."

She squinted her eyes at me. "You sure?"

"Yeah, pretty sure."

She continued to stare at me. Then she grunted, looked over at the doctor, and asked, "So, doc, is he going to be good."

Chakwas nodded. "He's going to be fine. At worst he hit his head and agitated the fracture in his skull, and I saw no signs of that happening. He didn't even have those odd beta waves like you did. He should be fine."

Shepard nodded, and turned to look back at me. "Alright then. In the next day or so, be ready to get off the ship, Michael. You're going with me on the ground team on Noveria. Same goes for you Liara." She nodded her goodbyes to everyone, then left.

"Well," I said. "I better get going too. If Imma be on the ground, I got some things I need to get."

I followed after Shepard, and hoped that no one would bring up the fallen angel in my head again.

But I knew, for a fact, that was just a pipe dream.

* * *

We stepped out of the _Normandy's _airlock and into the docking bay, and immediately a gust of cold wind blew past, snowflakes fluttering and twirling in the air. Everyone shivered as it passed.

Well, not me.

I threw a victorious fist into the air and said, "Ah ha! Score one for the guy with double layers!"

Kaidan muttered something along the lines of "Should have thought of that," and Shepard simply gave me a withering look of annoyance.

I smiled at her.

"Come on," the Irish beauty said. "We gotta find Benezia. She'll be here somewhere, and we don't want to lose her."

We moved forward, forming a diamond formation without even realising it. Shepard was at the front, Kaidan to her left, Liara to her right, and I brought up the rear.

As we made our way to the entrance of the building, we ran into a group of three people, dressed like security, armor and weapons and mean stares included, blocking the path to the door.

We stopped in front of them, as the one that looked to be in the lead said, "That's far enough."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, officer?"

The blond woman to the left of the security's leader said, "You better hope there isn't."

I looked right in the face, my stare flat, as I said, "I just met you, and I already don't like you."

Shepard held up a hand to placate me from saying anything else, but I could see, from the look on her face, that she didn't like the blond any more than I did from the few words that were said.

The head of the security said, "This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials."

"Commander Shepard, Special Tactics and Recon," the redhead said.

The blond snorted. "Load of horsecrap, ma'am."

Have you ever had the urge to just jump across the room and strangle someone until they're blue in the face? I have. Right now, in fact.

The captain said, "We will need to confirm that. Also, I must advise you that firearms are not permitted on Noveria." She turned to the blond. "Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons."

The blond took a step forward, but stopped as we all drew our guns. Shepard pointed her pistol in one hand, Kaidan held his in a two-handed grip, crouched down low, and Liara flared her biotics dangerously. Me, I drew my knife and pointed it at the blond, the runes on the flat of the blade glowing a gentle red as the scent of sulfur and brimstone filled the air.

I took a few steps forward to stand next to Shepard, with my Hellfire infused knife still pointed at the blond cop, and extended my left hand forward as well, keeping it pointed at the other cops. I prepped a shield spell in my mind, but held off on actually casting it. The rings on my left hand, though, started to glow.

"We going to let them do this, Commander?" Kaidan asked.

"Please let them," I said. "It would be nice to see just how far I could throw them."

Shepard narrowed her eyes dangerously, yet when she spoke, her voice was sweetly pleasant. "Nobody takes my weapon."

The blond cop sneered. "Charge and lock!"

The captain stood a little straighter at Shepard's announcement of her keeping her gun. She said, "We are authorised to use lethal force. You have to the count of three to surrender your weapons. One. Two. Thr-"

A woman's voice shout over an intercom, "Captain Matsuo! Stand down!"

The newly identified Matsuo bowed her head a bit, and relaxed her stance.

The voice on the intercom continued. "We can prove their identity. Spectre's are authorised to carry weapons here, Captain."

The Captain nodded, and looked back at us. Our little team, for our part, had put our weapons away by this point, and were back in a relaxed stance. "You may proceed," the Captain said. "I hope the rest of your visit will be less confrontational. Parasini-san will meet you upstairs."

Stirling sneered at us again. "Behave yourselves."

Okay, now I'm about done with this annoying bitch.

Without moving my arm, I drew forth my will, flicked my wrist, and whispered, "_Vind._"

A gust of arctic air blew through the docking bay, and flew past the Sergeant with enough force to knock her on her ass. Just her. Not the rest of her team. The Captain was at least professional, and the turian had yet to actually say anything.

Stirling fell onto her ass, and I looked down at her, saying simply, "Huh. Rogue wind." I turned to the rest of the _Normandy_ team- with Kaidan trying to hide a smile, Liara looking confused, and Shepard openly smirking- and said, "Well, come on, guys. Let's get out of the cold."

We stepped into the building, and immediately I'm struck with the impression that this place was dirty. Not physically, mind you. The place looked spotless, with the polished floors and the clean windows, and the pretty slanted fountain that went the length of the stairs. The place struck me as a pit of corruption. The way some of the cops on duty watched us, how a few people who were sitting around looked at us, and immediately tried to pretend they hadn't. I knew, without a doubt, that we would see all the colors of the bureaucratic rainbow while we were here.

If Shepard got the same feeling, she didn't show it. As we entered, she muttered, "The benefits of having a wizard on the team." She just turned to me and said, "While that was funny, please don't go around throwing people every which way."

I gave a mock salute. "You got it, boss-lady."

She nodded and we went up the stairs. We passed a few hovering drones that were scanning the entryway to the elevator, and an alarm started to blare as we stepped past their scan lights.

A woman behind a counter said, "Weapons detectors. Don't mind the alarms."

We turned to face her, and stepped up to the counter.

The woman said, "I am Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. We apologise for the incident in the docking bay."

Shepard got straight to the point. "I have urgent business here."

Parasini nodded. "One of my duties here is the orientation of new arrivals. Do you have any questions?"

"Has anyone unusual passed through here recently?" Shepard asked.

Parasini tilted her head. "Unusual? An asari matriarch passed through here a few days ago. Lady Benezia."

That caught Liara's attention. "Benezia? She is here?"

Shepard turned back to Parasini. "Can I speak with her?"

"Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex days ago." Parasini shrugged. "To the best of my knowledge, she is still there."

Shepard nodded. "That's where we need to be, then."

"You'll need to ask Administrator Anoleis for clearance to leave this port," Parasini pointed out.

"Then where can we find the administrator?" I asked.

"His office is on the main level. Left at the top of the elevator."

Shepard grunted. "Understood. Can we go in now?"

Parasini nodded. "Of course. If you need any help, you can ask me at the administrator's office." Then she left, going through a door behind the counter.

Liara was staring at the floor as she said, "She is here. I can't believe it."

We all turned to look at her as she went on. "I imagine you want to talk to me, Shepard. About my mother."

Shepard shook her head. "No, I don't. You may not be military, but you're part of my crew."

Liara bowed her head. "Thank you, Shepard. That means a great deal to me." She looked back up, saying, "If we are going to find her, I must warn you that an asari matriarch is among the wisest and most powerful beings in the galaxy. We should proceed with caution."

I snorted at that.

Liara blinked. "I'm… sorry, Michael, did I say something wrong?"

I shook my head. "You said something that was incorrect."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Care to share, Blackstone?"

I shrugged. "An asari matriarch is powerful, sure, but nowhere even _close _to being the most powerful beings in the galaxy. Next to some of the other things out there- like gods, archangels, some higher Sidhe lords, the nobility in every vampire court- an asari matriarch is comparable to a lobotomized monkey who just learned to how to throw their own poo." I looked at everyone when I added, "Makes you wonder what the rest of us are."

Shepard's brow furrowed. "So, what? We've got nothing to worry about?"

I shook my head. "No, that would be stupid, to assume that we're going to be fine. I'm just saying that we're lucky we aren't going up against some of the more powerful beings in the galaxy. We should still be cautious."

"Then what do you suggest?"

I shrugged again. "I dunno. We'll have to see when we get there." Odds were better than good that Benezia would rely on her biotics to combat us. Considering that my magic can make a biotic barrier explode onto itself, there really shouldn't be much of a problem. But circumstances might make the situation a bit more complex than that. So, it would be better to assume that Benezia has the tools and foresight to kill us, and to plan accordingly.

Paranoid? Maybe. But I'm only paranoid if I'm wrong.

* * *

I hate politics.

Mostly, I hate politics because whenever I find myself involved in it, it's usually because I've thrown myself into yet another supernatural matter, with the warring sides vying for control of something or other. Often, it's through subtle manipulation that the beings that I go against make their power plays, and it's the Average Joe who gets caught in the crossfire, usually becoming a casualty that neither supernatural side gives much of a shit about. That doesn't change the fact that there's a man or woman, who had a life and family and friends, that is dead now only because the vampires or faeries or whatever were trying to make a grab for power that they shouldn't have anyway. The corpse is still there, and it's people like me (and to a lesser extent, C-Sec and the like) that have to deal with the clean up, deliver bad news, hunt down the murdering assholes. Stuff like that.

When I find myself in those kinds of political plays, I usually tread very carefully, as to not get myself so drawn in that I become a pawn in the manipulation, but still involved enough to stop the asshats from doing whatever it is that they plan to do, which is usually nothing good for the non-supernatural crowd. It doesn't work most of the time, because I get frustrated and angry that there are beings out there that hold life in such little regard that killing someone for their own personal and political gain is something par for the course. I usually get drawn in deeper and deeper into the course of events that take place, usually being manipulated by both sides, all while trying to come up with my own plan to stop both sides from reaching their respective goals. And the plans that I come up with, each time I make them, get more and more manipulative the more I throw myself in the middle of these supernatural conflicts. I find myself becoming more and more like the beings that I bust my ass off to fight and stop.

Eventually, I know, I'm going to piss someone off so badly that I'll have to start manipulating the people I've spent the last four years trying to protect, in order to save my own ass; thus becoming more like my own enemies.

Those politics remind me of just how perilous a line I'm walking, trying to use my power to stop these beings- the werewolf packs and faux cultists and demons and hack sorcerers. It reminds me that every time I go against them, the more I become like them, and that it's only a matter of time until I'm going against them because it benefits _me_, not because someone got hurt who shouldn't have.

There's another reason I hate politics. I also hate it because it goes to show just how utterly _petty_ and fucking _irritating _mortals can be to their fellow mortal.

Take the situation we're in, as an example. Once we got to the main level of the port, Shepard made the immediate decision to go talk to that Anoleis guy, to try and get as much info from him as we could. When we got there, though, the guy was about as cold and unforgiving as the weather outside was. In hindsight, that should have been predictable, but for some reason, the thought didn't seem to cross anyones mind (or, if it did, no one said anything). Any question that were shot at him were responded with him talking in circles, getting us nowhere fast. I had expected some sort of resistance from the administrative staff, seeing as how our presence pretty much rocked their proverbial boat of their normalcy, but the half-truths and vague answers that Anoleis gave us were utterly infuriating. It made me want to crush his little frog head into the nearest wall.

When we made to leave, the guy's assistant, Parasini, said she had overheard everything that we talked about, and that if we wanted to get a garage pass, we should talk to some turian named Lorik Qui'in (we needed the garage pass to get to Benezia, who was at a research complex through a pretty bad snow storm).

We went to the hotel lounge that Qui'in was loitering at, and had a talk with him. Turns out, he had evidence that pegged Anoleis as a corrupt administrator, and that he wanted us to get it. I'm not sure how Parasini knew that Qui'in had that kind of evidence, but a gut feeling told me she was more than you're average assistant.

Anyway, after doing some prodding and subtle questioning, I was able to learn that Qui'in's evidence of Anoleis' illegal deeds were actually illegal itself, and that he only wanted it to make sure he had proper blackmail against the administrator. He didn't outright say these things, of course, but I've dealt with enough people like him to know where to read between the lines.

Seeing as how we had no other way of getting that garage pass, which was being offered as payment for getting the evidence against Anoleis, we had to agree to Qui'in's deal. It was only after we agreed that we were told that there were a bunch of dirty cops, all on Anoleis' payroll, that were tearing their way through Qui'in's office, looking for the evidence against the administrator.

So, to sum it all up, we've got a corrupt administrator who was stonewalling us at every direct chance he got, an equally dirty corporate official who was trying to get blackmail against the aforementioned administrator, a group of crooked cops who were probably going to shoot us on sight, then claim some bullshit alibi to get them out of the heat, and a too-well informed assistant who I was pretty sure was playing her own game in all of this, and doing it _much _better than everyone else. All the while, there's us, trying to hack our way through this political web of intrigue (read as: bullshit), being used by everyone to further their own agendas

What did I tell ya? All the colors of a bureaucratic rainbow.

With all the mystique that befitted the master wizard I am, I deepened my glower as I thought through all these things on the elevator ride up to Synthetic Insights. It may not be the prerogative of a wizard to complain a lot, but it definitely was the prerogative of one to _glower _a lot.

Shepard seemed to notice my less-than-happy look, and nodded her head in agreement, seemingly reading my mind. "Yeah, I don't like it much either, Michael."

I cast a glance into her gorgeous green eyes for a dangerous second, then focused on the tip of her nose as I grumbled, "Way I figure it, these people just want us gone. You'd think that they'd be a bit more compliant than they are, if only to get us gone as soon as possible."

Shepard snorted. "Yeah, but why pass up the perfectly good opportunity to use us to get ahead in whatever bullshit schemes they have? To these lot, we're tools. Unique tools, maybe, but that doesn't mean they have to play nice."

So, she noticed that, too. Good to see the Commander is perceptive in more than just the battlefield.

The elevator stopped, and we stepped out, only to be confronted by a woman in armor, that matching the other security we've seen around.

"Stop right there," she said, holding up a hand. "These offices are a restricted area. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Shepard narrowed her eyes as she eyed the woman. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

The cop replied, "The administrator's orders. Lorik Qui'in is under investigation."

Shepard snorted. "Anoleis is paying you to shake this place down." She quirked a fire-red brow in question. "Does Captain Matsuo know you're here?"

The cop got defensive. "Hey, I'm not the one who want's Qui'in. Anoleis has a varen up his ass about the guy." She looked at her partner, who traded a glance with her, a silent conversation passing by in seconds. She turned back to Shepard, and said, "How 'bout this? You pretend you didn't see us, we'll pretend we didn't see you."

Shepard nodded, and the two guards made their way into the elevator, pressing the button to go down.

As soon as the elevator door closed, we heard a voice shout, "Hey! There's someone here!"

A man at the far end of the room rounded a corner, holding an assault rifle in his hands, prepped with the intent to riddle Liara, Kaidan, Shepard, and I with new holes.

Shepard dove for cover, which came in the form of a nearby planter to the left of us. Liara and Kaidan rushed over to a wall divider to the right. I didn't have enough time to move. Instead, I threw my left hand forward as the cop pulled the trigger, and shouted, "_Forsvar!_"

The wall of translucent energy congealed into sight, my shield rings starting to glow. Shots landed on my shield, trying to break through, but no such luck was had for the cop.

As I plated the perfect distraction, Shepard popped out to the side of her cover, her sniper rifle in hand, and she fired a single shot. It tore through the mans shield and imbedded itself into his chest, right where the heart was placed; a fatal shot. He dropped his rifle and fell to the ground dead.

"Kaidan, Liara," Shepard said, her voice calm and commanding. "Move up."

The two nodded, and rounded the corner from there wall divider cover, Kaidan taking the lead, his assault rifle in hand. Liara followed behind him, her biotics flared dangerously and a pistol in her hand.

A flicker of movement drew my eye to the right, and I saw another cop moving along the wall divider, trying to be as quiet as he could, so as to get the jump on us. Sad for him, but when someones sees your ambush, it loses a lot of it's effectiveness.

I turned to face him, and drew my pistol out of my pocket with my left hand, letting the shield spell drop. Without taking the time to properly aim, I fired two shots as quick as I could. I got lucky as the first bullet dropped the guys shield, the second hitting him in the arm.

He flinched as the bullet dug into his left bicep, but it didn't stop him from squeezing off a few shots, albeit poorly aimed ones.

One shot hit my thigh, which was protected by both my spell-bound coat and the ceramic plate pants that I wore. Another shot hit me right in the gut, knocking the wind out of me, and the third flew wide, whizzing past my head.

My eyes widened a bit as I realised that I hadn't put up my hood to give me proper protection for my head. No time to think on that now, however.

I aimed my pistol back at the guy, pulled the trigger, and a shot hit him in the gut, making him drop the the ground.

The small altercation took up the span of about two and a half seconds, and it was enough time for Shepard to turn to see the guy drop to the ground. She saw him squirming around and put a sniper round through his head.

She then turned to me to see if I was fine, and I nodded. She then tapped the area around her temple, which was covered by a helmet, reiterating a point that I was already aware of.

I waved my hand, dismissing her worries, and flicked my hood up and pulled on my mask, thus giving my head the proper protection it needed. Then I said, "Come on, let's check out those stairs." I jerked my head at the flight in question.

Shepard held up a finger in a 'one moment' gesture. A second later, Kaidan shouted, "Clear!", followed by Liara shouting the same.

"Regroup on me," Shepard called back to them, and they made their way over to us. Shepard then waved her gun in the direction of the stairs and said, "Everyone up. Michael, you're on point. Liara, you get his back. Kaidan, you've got the rear."

We all nodded, and made our way over to the stairs.

As we climbed up, I shifted my pistol from my left hand to my right, and aimed my left forward, the shield spell ready to go again.

I rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, and immediately called my shield to bear, crouching down low so that the others could shoot over the mobile cover I made. Good thing I did, too, because two assault rifles opened up onto me, slamming into my shield, causing fatigue to run through my mind and my rings to flare up again.

The two cops that were shooting me where hidden behind planters, one of them closer than the other. They were popping out either side of their cover, as to not accidentally shoot their buddy.

Liara was quick on the draw, and Shepard was even faster as they both fired over my shield. Liara fired off two shots at the guy on the left, one to take the kinetic barrier, the other for the kill shot. Shepard needed to only fire one, bypassing the shield guy on the right had. They both quickly fell to the ground.

We advanced forward slowly, on the lookout for anymore assholes that decided we'd be good target practice. We found none as we entered an office that was across a walkway that overlooked the lower floor.

Once inside the office, Shepard made an immediate move past me to get to the computer that sat on a desk. I turned to face the door, just incase someone barged in unannounced. Kaida stood next to me, his stance coiled, ready to move at a moment's notice. He still tried for polite conversation, though.

"That shield thing is real handy, isn't it?" He said. "Mobile cover like that. Made those last two guys a walk in the park."

I nodded. "It's got it's uses, yeah. It's one of the many reasons that mundane things like guns and such aren't as much of a threat to the supernatural world."

He tilted his head. "What do you mean? A bullet to the head is a bullet to the head, right?"

I bobbed my head in acquiescence. "Well, yeah, but to the spooky crowd, they're not as dangerous. Most of the monsters can take about double the damage that the average human can, probably more. There are also some things that can soak up bullets like a target down range. Back in the twenty first century, when bullets still came with cases, it would depend on the size of a bullet to determine how much damage is done to, say, a goblin. They get shot with a fifty caliber round from a high powered rifle, and they won't be getting back up. But nowadays, it's the firing mechanism and the make of the gun, not the size of the round, that determines the effective damage done. Bullets nowadays are the size of a grain of sand, give or take, and that doesn't really matter to beings that have hides tougher than some metals, or could bench press a mako. So, while firearms have gotten more effective against other mortals, they have become _less _effective against the supernatural, if only because the impact of the shots is lessened."

Kaidan furrowed his brow. "That seems a little… self deprecating, yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's one of the reasons that you'll find some kind of spooky monster, wherever you go. Of course, that's not to say that mortals are without their share of advantages against the supernatural. If you go against a faerie, it's always smart to have cold iron on you. Get into a tussle with a Black or Red court vamp? Just flash a symbol of faith, or douse some holy water on them, and they'll be running scared." I shrugged as a thought hit me. "The problem isn't having the advantage over the enemy. It's making sure that people know that advantage is there to begin with."

Kaidan furrowed his brow, looking like he was about to ask another question, when Shepard said, "Alright, got it." She walked over to where Kaidan and I stood. "Okay, let's get going. Michael, you're on point again."

"I'm only on point again because you want to stare at my ass," I groused jokingly.

Shepard rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah. It's only fair, considering how much you stare at mine."

"... Touche."

"Besides," she went on. "Kaidan's right. You're practically moving cover, with that shield you've got. It's more practical to use your shield to stop bullets, rather than someone else's torso."

I smiled at Shepard, and said, "Got it, boss-lady. Be the human shield I was born to be." I crouched down a little lower, walked out of the office door, and held my left hand up, the shield at the ready.

Across the walkway stood four figures, each garbed in armor. One of them, the one in the lead, was Sergeant Stirling from earlier.

She walked up to us and opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off, saying, "Hey, guys! Look! It's BitchPants McCrabby!"

McCrabby's glare intensified as she stared at me, but I was unperturbed. "I don't think you're suppose to be here, you four," she said, transferring her glare to each of us.

"No, we're not," Shepard said simply. "But neither are you."

BitchPants' glare moved to Shepard. "Anoleis would throw you off world for what you did here. I won't. You know what we do to cop killers on my world?"

"If you showed us the body of a real cop," I said, "we'd be glad to pay the price for killing them." I looked around at the corpses that were laying about. "All I see are two-bit mercenaries who thought they were hot shit because they had a big gun."

"I had a mission to complete," Shepard defended. "I would have let them go if they gave me the choice. They didn't. They paid for it. They shot first."

BitchPants sneered, and a blue nimbus of biotic energy coalesced around her. "Well, I don't need a gun to rip you to pieces."

"_Hexus!_"

Magical energies lashed across the space between us, hitting McCrabby dead on. Her biotics intensified, glowing bright by the second, when suddenly they just stopped. The blue nimbus around her disappeared entirely, and McCrabby was left stunned as I put a bullet through her head. She fell bonelessly to the floor.

Thus was the end of Miss BitchPants McCrabby, asshat extraordinaire.

The remaining three opened fire on me, and a few shots slammed into my chest before I could get the shield up. Once it was up, and the remaining mercs saw that their shots were doing nothing, they started to dive for cover, which was something Shepard and the gang had already done at this point.

I dove forward, placing my back against a large planter, switching my pistol to my left hand and drawing out my dagger from it's thigh sheath.

I looked to my left, and see a turian pop up from the far side of a table that he was using as cover. He shot a very large, red projectile at me, some kind of explosive round that I had seen before but never got the name of. I curl up onto myself, turning my back against the round, and when it impacted against my back, I was thrown to the floor, face first.

I quickly spin onto my back, take quick aim against the turian, and fire three shots at him. All of them impacted against his better-than-normal kinetic barrier. He was about to open fire on me again, but he failed to see Kaidan pop out of his cover from behind a concrete handrail of the walkway and pump a few shots into his chest. Liara was next to him, firing down onto the lower level, and Shepard had taken cover on the same planter as I did, only using a side that protected from both the direction the turian was in and the rest of them, who were immediately forward of the walkway.

I scrambled back to my cover behind the planter, and noticed that the remaining two guys on this level were taking cover behind the planters that were nearest the entrance to the stairwell.

I stood up out of my cover, aimed my dagger at one of the planters, and shouted, "_Kraft!_", putting as much force behind it as I could without being enough to blow a hole in the wall.

The kinetic energy flew forward and slammed into the planter one of the mercs was hiding behind. The planter was pushed back so hard that it dragged the merc with it as the side the merc was pressed up against slammed into a door that lead to another office. There was a crash, and a sickening crunch of impact as the man was crushed to death.

The guy that was behind the other planter must have seen what had happened to his buddy (I mean, how could you not have?), and tried to make a break for the stairs, presumably to get with the guys that Liara was firing at down there. He didn't make it, however, as the report of Shepard's sniper was heard, and the man dropped to the ground, a nice hole in his back.

"Michael!" She shouted. "Down the stairs! I've got your back!"

I nodded, and made my way to the stairwell, pocketing my pistol into my coat. I got all the way down to the bottom of the stairs, walked forward a little, and made my way into the main room when someone from my left tried to smash the butt of their rifle into my head. I leaned forward to dodge the blow, and wrapped my left hand around the back of the merc's head, shoving my dagger through the underside of his jaw, a weak spot in most hardsuit helmets, forcing the point through the guy's skull and into his brain, just like I did that krogan in Chora's Den.

I pulled the knife out and let the body slump to the floor. I spun around and looked around the rest of the room, scanning for immediate threats. "I think we're good," I said when I saw none.

Shepard walked up next to me, her eyes scanning as well. When she saw there were no raving mad men trying to immediately stick a pointy thing in her eye, she nodded her head in agreement, saying, "Good work, people." She turned to me. "And you. You make a very good distraction."

I shrugged humbly.

"There's one thing I need to know, though," she said.

I tilted my head. "What's that?"

"That guy, the one you crushed the the planter. Doesn't that break one of your Laws of Magic?"

I shook my head. "Technically, he didn't die by magic. He died because a planter crushed him to death. As long as magic isn't directly responsible, it doesn't break the first Law. In most circumstances, anyway."

Shepard's fire-red brows furrowed. "But… That's a technicality."

"One I am prepared to hide wildly behind." I shook my head. "Don't worry, Shepard. Everything's fine. Well, except for all the corpses strewn about. Those would cause the average person worry."

A slight smile worked onto her lips. "At what point did we become 'average people'?"

One side of my mouth quirked up. "True."

Shepard started to make her way towards the elevator. "Come along, children. Mommy needs to go talk to the nice man at the bar."

I fell into step behind her. "Is he gonna be our new 'special uncle', like the other guys?" I asked in a childish voice. When I got near a planter, I wiped the blade of my dagger clean of any blood and grey matter that might have been on it.

Shepard rolled her eyes at my joke and kept walking, but she was smiling anyway. Kaidan and Liara followed after her. I hesitated, looking back into the offices.

"What is it?" Liara asked. Considering the fact that she had just seen me use pure, grade-A magic not a few minutes ago, she was holding up fairly well.

I shook my head and got into the elevator. "I just noticed. That place had a _shit ton_ of planters."

Kaidan arched an eyebrow. "You just noticed? Gosh, you'd make a great detective."

My glower returned as I stared at Kaidan.

It remained on my face all the way down.

Maybe that elevator just brings out the worst in me.

* * *

We stepped out of the elevator and saw that Parasini was standing right in front of the path that lead back into the main level of the port.

As we approached her, I got a bit weary. It was at this point, I was figuring, that Parasini would make her play in all of this. Getting us to go after Qui'in's lead on Anoleis was just her setup, and it was now that she was going to show her hand to the rest of us.

"Commander," she said, "there have been complaints of noise coming from the Synthetic Insights office. Would you know anything about that?"

"There were at least ten people who just got shot to death up there," I said instantly. Parasini stared at me, her face unreadable. I kept talking. "Okay, well, that's not entirely true. One guy got stabbed, and another got crushed by a planter. It was pretty sick. Should've seen it."

After a moment of staring at me, Parasini said, "Smartass, huh? That's fine. I can work with that." She turned back to Shepard. "Meet me at the hotel for a drink, _before _you talk with Qui'in. I'll be waiting." With that said, she turned and left.

The Irish beauty turned to me. "Did you just have to start running your mouth?" She didn't sound too terribly upset with me, but there was definitely an undertone of annoyance and amusement at what I just did.

I shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. Snark is a reflex at this point. It can't be helped."

Shepard sighed, and Kaidan said, "You and Joker would get along great."

"Come on," the redhead said. "Let's go see what this lady wants." She started to mumble under her breath. "All this damn manipulation and politics and shit… starting to get on my nerves…"

We made our way to the hotel lounge, and looked around to find Parasini sitting near a table, quietly motioning for us to sit. We walked over to her, and Shepard joined the 'assistant', while the rest of us stood.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself," Parasini said, her voice a bit harder than it was before. "Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs."

Fucking knew it.

Shepard quirked an eyebrow. "Why is an IA agent here?"

"The Executive board knows about Anoleis' corruption," the IA cop explained. "I've been undercover for six months. I want you to convince Qui'in to testify before the board. With his evidence, this planet can run profitably again."

"I need Qui'in's garage pass to complete my mission," Shepard said.

Parasini nodded. "You help my investigation, I'll provide whatever you need. Favor for a favor."

"Seems we'd help more people if we did what she asks," Kaidan said, offering his two cents.

I snorted. "No, we wouldn't. Anoleis is rocking the boat more than the Board likes. With him out of the way, they can get back to their regular backroom deals. The ones that are more profitable to themselves, and not the competition. It pays to be on top, as they say."

"Look, I don't like this either, Commander," Parasini said. "You Spectre's play fast and loose by the law. That's bad for business." What's _great _for business, however, is using the very same laws that fight corruption against people who make competition against other corrupt officials.

Shepard's answer was a non-committal, "I'll consider it and get back to you."

As a last word, Parasini added, "If you have any love for the law, you'll talk to Qui'in for me. Don't disappoint me." Like we have to impress her, or something. "You know where I work. Come talk to me when you've changed your mind." With that, she left, presumably to go back to her work station.

Shepard motioned to the seats around the table. "Sit down, you guys."

We did, and she looked at everyone of us, question on her face. "So," she said. "What do you think I should do? Kaidan, you're up first."

The lieutenant shrugged. "Way I see it, by helping Parasini, we'll be stopping Anoleis from screwing over all the people he's been exploiting."

Shepard looked at me, an eyebrow raised. "And you've got a problem with that?"

I shook my head. "Not at all. All I'm saying is that the Executive Board probably isn't that clean either. They're probably look to get things back to the very profitable status quo, from before Anoleis started to make his fortune. I'm not against helping Parasini, all I'm saying is is that we aren't choosing between good and bad here. It's a choice of which evil is the lesser of the two. And for the record, I'm pretty sure that's Parasini's option."

Shepard looked at the asari, who had been quiet thus far. "What do you think, Liara?"

Liara thought for a moment, before she replied, "I am not so inclined in these types of situations as you are, Commander. I will refer to you judgement. But I am fairly confident that we should go along with Parasini."

The Commander looked at all of us again, then grunted. "Alright. Then it's settled. Let's go talk to Parasini."

The trip to Parasini was boring, and her reply was as smug as you'd expect, as though she knew we'd play her game, and that she only gave us the time to think just to humor us. It made me want to punch her in the mouth.

But maybe I'm just being violent.

Anyway, we went back into the hotel lounge and made our way over to Qui'in. As we approached, he said, "Always a pleasure, Spectre. Any news on that matter I asked you to look into?"

Shepard nodded. "I finished the job. But an Internal Affairs investigator contacted me. She wants you to testify against Anoleis."

Qui'in was less than pleased at this revelation. "Now that you have my property, you wish to dictate how I use it? I have no interest in a public spectacle."

Shepard put on the charm as she said, "Everyone on this station is chafing under Anoleis' extortion. You might end up a hero." More realistically, he'd end up labeled a snitch and blacklisted from any future deals that he might try to make, but let's hope that he doesn't realise that.

"My employers rely on the goodwill of the Executive Board to work here," He countered.

"Yet the Board is the one hunting down Anoleis. They'd be more pissed at you if they found out that you had evidence, and didn't testify, as opposed to if you did testify," I said.

After a moment of thought, Qui'in sighed. "Alright. It is obvious I cannot dissuade you. I will testify. Make whatever arrangements you need with your contact. I will wait here."

We nodded, and made our way back to Parasini.

When we got there, Parasini looked up from her computer and said, "Spectre. How did it go with Qui'in?"

Shepard shrugged. "It took some persuasion, but Qui'in agreed to testify."

Parasini sighed in relief. "That's a world of stress off of my back. I'll take the evidence for safe transport." She held out her hand, and Shepard gave the OSD to her. Then she hummed in thought. "I didn't think you'd help me. Being a Spectre and all. I guess some of you can be alright."

Shepard nodded. "I'll leave you to your work."

Parasini held up a hand. "Before you go, I need to hold to my end of the deal. That garage pass to Peak 15? While you were working on Qui'in, I got you a pass. Be careful out there." She gave the pass to Shepard. "Now, I have an arrest to make. Wish I had the time to change into something easy to move in. I hate skirts."

She went into Anoleis' office, and a minute later she was dragging him out of the door, with him shouting, "This is an outrage! I'll see you never work in this sector again!"

Parasini rolled her eyes as she dragged him across the floor. "Yeah, yeah. Get a move on."

Anoleis noticed us as he passed by and tried to get us to help. "You! Shepard! I demand that you place this bitch under arrest!"

Parasini scowled at him. "You have the right to remain silent. I wish to God that you'd use it." She pushed the frog man forward and called over her shoulder, "See you around the galaxy, Commander. I owe you a beer." With that, she left, the asshat in front of her with his hands cuffed behind his back.

I watched them go, and hummed in thought.

Shepard looked at me. "What?"

"I can't help but wonder," I told her, "how many 'urgent messages' he's going to get while he 'dithers about' in a cell."

Shepard snorted in laughter and said, "Come on, everyone. Let's go get Benezia." She strode forward, aiming for the garage that was previously restricted.

We followed after her.

* * *

The door to the garage was guarded by a single guard who seemed nervous about us come up to her. When we got in range, she held up a hand to stop us, and said, "Access to the garage is restricted."

Shepard held out the pass we had just gotten. "I have authorization. Excuse me."

I the guard examined the pass, then seemed to relax as she realized that it was real. "Yes, that genuine. Drive safely. The weather's supposed to be pretty bad out in the Aleutsk Valley."

The door opened and we stepped through.

As we got farther into the garage, I couldn't help but have the feeling that we were being watched by something. My instincts had told me that I had been watched before, and they had yet to be wrong. So, I listened to them as I said, "Hey, Shepard. Tread careful-"

At the far end of the garage, two towering figures came running at us hold rather large weapons.

"Guess we know what the Matriarch had in the creates," Kaidan offered redundantly.

I started to smile as I flicked my hood and mask on, drawing out my dagger.

Now, I got to have _fun_.

I aimed my dagger at the two big figures and shouted, "_Kjeden lyn!_"

A bolt of lightning, a specialty of mine, shot out of the tip of my knife. It hit the first geth destroyer tearing down it's shields but doing little to it's body. The lightning, however, didn't stop moving there, as it arched from the first destroyer to the other, dropping it's shield, then arched to yet another figure that was rounding a corner, a geth shock trooper, dropping his shield as well. The lightning wasn't meant to tear a hole in the geths armor, but rather drop as many shields as it could.

Shepard and Kaidan opened fire on the destroyers, and Shepard shouted, "Liara! Singularity on those hoppers!"

I saw Liara look up, and followed her gaze to see two geth clinging to the ceiling. Liara made a hand motion, and a ball of dark energy was thrown at the two geth. One of them reacted in time to get away, but the other was caught in the gravity well the singularity created. Liara proceeded to shoot it dead.

I focused on the other hopper. I saw it jump from the ceiling to a wall, then back to the ceiling, then to another wall. It repeated this process until it seemed certain that no one was aiming at it, then lined up some sort of lazer from it's face on Shepard. I would have none of that.

I pointed my dagger at it, shouted, "_Tyngde!_", and quickly drew the knife downward. The magic lashed out at the geth, and increased the amount of gravity in the exact area where the geth currently was. It dropped from the wall it was latched onto and slammed into the ground with enough force to smash the concrete and crush it's housing. It's headlight dimmed in death.

I turned my attention to the destroyers, only to see the last one fall to the ground. I didn't know where the shock trooper was, probably behind cover, but I didn't need to worry about that, as a final figure moved around the corner where the other geth came from. In it's hands was a rocket launcher that it immediately fired upon seeing us.

I ran forward a bit, trying to get a bit ahead of Shepard and Kaidan to met the rocket head on, and thrust my dagger at it, shouting, "_Kraft!_"

I put only enough energy into the spell to cancel out the thrust of the rockets booster, causing the rocket to fall to the ground before it could reach us and explode harmlessly.

I re-aimed my dagger to point at the rocket trooper and called out, "_Lyn!_"

The lightning bolt I fired this time wasn't meant to travel from one geth to another. This one was cast with the sole purpose of hitting the geth head on, and go through the thing. It did just that as it impacted with the geth, tearing right through it's shield as though it were nothing, and busting open a hole in it's chest the size of my head where the lightning impacted. The thing fell to the ground, dead before it could even realise it.

The shock trooper that was hiding popped out of cover, probably to take a shot or two at someone, but was dropped by a shot from Shepard's sniper rifle, dying an unceremonious death.

We all scanned the room, looking for more enemies, but when none became apparent, Shepard nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now, let's get to that mako over there."

I kept looking around the room, my eyes squinted, that feeling of being watched still making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. "No," I said. "No, I don't think we're done he-"

I was interrupted by a heavy weight slamming into my back, throwing my to the ground. I felt claws start to rake the back of my neck, so I instinctively hunched my shoulders and interlocked my hands over that area before any major damage was done. The claws tore through my fingers, and I felt an intense and overwhelming pain in the area of my left pinkie.

The claws took a moment of pause for some reason, which was followed by some swallowing sound, and I threw a right elbow into the body of the thing on my back. I rolled to the right to get some distance between me and the thing, and as I got on my back, I saw a big malk bound away from me, heading straight for Liara, moving faster than fast.

The big cat swiped a large paw at Liara's gut before she could even flinch away, tearing open a nie tri set of gouges in her stomach. She fell to the ground, grimacing in pain, clutching at the wounds that just opened up.

The feline then made a beeline for Kaidan. Thankfully, he was a bit more prepared for the malk as it jumped straight at him, knocking him to the ground, where it tried to claw at his face. He held it off by keeping it at as far a length as he could manage.

I looked around me, and scrambled for my dagger. To get that cat off him, I would need a precise shot. Couldn't use lightning, the charge would just transfer from the malk to Kaidan. Not wind, not strong enough. Don't need to get the cat closer to the ground, need to get it away from the lieutenant. So force it was.

I grabbed the hilt of my dagger, pointed it at the malk, and shout "_Kraft!_"

A lance of concentrated kinetic energy slammed into the cat's side, throwing it across the room. "Shepard!" I shouted. "Shoot it!"

Shepard raised her rifle, took a breath in, exhaled, and pulled the trigger, just as the malk had recovered enough to try and lunge at her. It was shot out of mid air, landing with a heavy thump as it crashed into the ground, a new bleeding hole where it's right eye used to be.

I staggered to my feet, and stumbled my way over to Kaidan. I offered him my hand to help him up, but he just stared at it. I furrowed my brow and looked at my hand, only to see that it was a mess of cuts and torn flesh and blood. The malks claws did a real number on me. I held up my left hand to see if it was in a similar state, and found that it was, with the difference that my left pinkie was missing at the first joint up from the knuckle. It was bleeding profusely, enough to make me feel more lightheaded by the second.

I grunted as I came to the decision to draw my dagger, imbue it with Hellfire, and press the hot blade against the stub of my finger. The very real heat of the Hellfire burned, and i gritted my teeth from the pain, but it cauterized my stub, shutting off the bleeding.

By this time time, Kaidan had gotten up and went to check on Liara, and Shepard jogged over to me, inspecting my hands and the cuts they bore. She pulled out a packet of medi-gel, and started to apply it to the injuries, holding my hands in her own.

"Holy Hell," she breathed. "That thing ate your pinkie finger."

"I know," I replied.

She looked over at the body of the cat, then back at my cuts and asked. "What the Hell was that thing?"

I looked over at the thing that ate my finger and glowered at it. "'s a malk. A faerie cat. Beings of Winter. Malks are to cats what a Thresher maw is to worms. The steroids version." I shook my head. "We got lucky there. It had the jump on us. Thankfully, there weren't any more of them. Though, that's cause for concern."

Shepard looked up at me as she wrapped the backs of my hands in bandages. "Why's that?"

"Because," I said, "malks hunt in packs. If there's only one here, that's bound to mean that there are more around. And considering the fact that it was with those geth? The odds are going to be stacked against us."

Shepard looked at the corpse of the cat, and shook her head. "I do not look forward to fighting another one of those things." She turned her attention to Liara and Kaidan. "How's she doing, LT?"

"It's not too bad," Kaidan replied. "Mostly just a flesh wound, from what I saw. Whatever that thing was, it didn't cut deep enough to do any real damage. It'll just hurt for a while. She should be good to go, just need to be mindful of the medi-gel."

Shepard grunted. "How 'bout you, Blackstone? You up to keep going?"

I tried to smile through the pain. "Yeah, I should be fine to go. Just don't ask me to do a cat's cradle or something, and we'll be just dandy."

Shepard scanned my face for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, let's get going."

Just then, the door to the garage opens, and Captain Matsuo walks in, staring at the bodies that were strewn about. "What the-," she said. "What are these things?" She turned to face her compatriots. "Fan out and secure the area! No one gets in or out!"

Shepard and I walked over to the Captain as Kaidan helped Liara to her feet.

The Captain whirled onto us. "What did you do here, Commander?!"

Shepard looked annoyed. "Me? Hey, I'm the victim here! The geth attacked us!"

"Geth?" Matsuo asked disbelievingly. "You expect me to-" she looked at one of the bodies, seemed to realise what she was saying, then sighed. "Where did they come from?"

"If I were to guess," Kaidan said as he walked over, "Benezia packed them in the shipping containers she arrived with."

Matsuo shook her head. "I don't believe that. We did thorough scans of those. There were no power sources, no element zero masses."

"And yet," I said, motioning around at the carnage. "Here they are."

Matsuo sighed again. "If Benezia-sama's containers were packed with these things, there are many more out there."

Of course there were… Because me losing my finger wasn't enough, apparently. No, now the universe has to make everything harder by having us fight hordes of geth, as well as a pack of malks, of which, one of them was enough to nearly kill us.

Ye Gods, my life blows some days.

"We've fought geth before," Shepard assured the Captain. "We'll take care of them for you."

Matsuo nodded. "I-I appreciate that. My people are good, but few of them have combat experience." She huffed out a breath. "I must report to the Executive Board. If word gets out about loose geth, there may be an investor panic." With that, she motioned for her team to follower her, and she left.

Shepard turned to us. "Alright people. Let's get a move on, shall we?"

We nodded, and made our way to pile into the mako to get to Peak 15, where our lives were only going to get harder, I'm sure.

But then, such is the life of a wizard.

* * *

**A/N: It is currently 3:30 in the morning as I write this Author's Notes, and I need my sleep _so bad_. See what I do for you people? I deprive myself of sleep so I can get this chapter out as soon I as I can.**

**No, it' okay. No need to thank me.**

**Anyway, more fighting in this chapter. Yay! Be sure to tell me how I did on that, because, like I've stated before, I'm not too confident on my ability with fighting scenes.**

**I also feel like the beginning of this chapter was a little weak. I'm not very good at writing for Liara, I think... But I don't know. Why don't you people tell me.**

**As for Liara not really reacting to the fact that Michael is throwing around lightning and the like, well, there's a reason.**

**However, sort of bad news. School is going to be starting up again soon, so that'll mean that I have less time to focus on this story. I'll do my damnedest to make sure that this story gets updated as frequently as possible, and I highly doubt that school will cause too much of a problem, but it's till only fair to give you people fair warning.**

**So, feel free to leave a review if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or criticisms.**

**And as always,**

**Thanks for Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy**


	6. The Song of Creation

We all jumped out of the mako, and immediately I fell to my knees and kissed the snow covered ground, saying, "Oh, sweet merciful Gods, I will never want to leave you again, ground."

Shepard swatted the back of my head as I stood back up and said, "My driving isn't that bad."

"Shepard," I said reasonably. "Throughout the last few years, I have faced terrible things. Monsters that make great men cower, and demons with souls as black and cold as the void in space. I have done battle against ancient beings of power, and hordes of undead creatures. I have survived the cruelest and most terrible days that Winter could possibly throw at me, and the hottest and most intense heats that Summer had to offer. I've done all of these things, and I've always done it with the certainty that if I were to die, I would at least die with courage, and that I would die doing the best that I could. Things got bad at times, sure, but I never, not once, backed down from a challenge given to me. But the past five minutes, here, in that mako, with you driving? That was the moment that I felt true fear for the first time."

Shepard glared at me and swatted me upside the head again. "Don't make me kick your ass," she grumbled.

"No, ma'am," I responded.

Shepard jerked her head to the door of the building that we parked in front of. "C'mon, people. Let's go find us a matriarch."

We made our way into the complex of Peak 15. We all formed into that diamond formation that I mentioned earlier, with Shepard in the front, Liara to the right, Kaidan to the left, and me in the back watching Shepard's ass (figuratively and literally). I started to lag behind the group, however, when the fatigue of the past few hours started to hit me.

Shepard cast her eyes back at me and she stopped when she noticed my obvious weariness. "Michael," she said. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Tired. Throwing around magic isn't as easy as I make it out to be. Not to mention that, apparently, having an appendage bitten off is a good way to take the fight out of you." I squared my shoulders and soldiered on. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just hope that we get this done soon, is all."

Shepard nodded, turned back forward, and made her way into the complex's garage, where I heard her mutter, "You and me both."

We passed through a series of doors, which finally lead to one big garage door. The door opened, and immediately a flurry of bullets and explosive rounds flew past us, impacting with the other garage door.

We all dove for cover, Shepard and Kaidan to a large crate to the left, and Liara and I to a wide ceiling support on the left. The bullet fire split off as the geth tracked us, and continued their onslaught, keeping us in cover.

"Michael!" Shepard shouted into the team's comm. "Get the Juggernaut's attention!"

I looked in her direction and nodded.

I drew my dagger from it's sheath, readied a shield spell in my mind, and popped out of cover, making sure to throw my left hand out, shouting, "_Forsvar!_"

The shield formed into existence in front of me, and the Juggernaut's fire turned on me, trying to pierce the shield. A geth shock trooper kept up the fire on Shepard's position, and a destroyer kept Liara pinned down on the far side of the ceiling support.

The Juggernaut's weapon overheated after a few more seconds of continuous fire, which was making me strain with the effort of keeping the spell going, and I dropped the shield, raised my dagger, and shouted, "_Kjeden lyn!_" A bolt of chain lightning shot out from the blade's tip, impacted with the Juggernaut, and arched over to the shock trooper.

This gave Shepard and Kaidan the opportunity to pop out of their cover, and for Shepard to shoot the shock trooper in the face, while Kaidan used a biotic lift to throw the Juggernaut into the air, making it float listlessly around.

I oriented my dagger onto it, shouting, "_Hexus!_" The magic lashed out and stuck the big geth, causing the biotics started to glow more intensely, whereupon there was a sudden and loud crunching noise as the mass effect field imploded on itself, crushing the Juggernaut as it fell to the ground.

I moved back behind my cover as a wave of dizziness hit me dead on. As the battle raged around me and the adrenaline hit my system, my heartbeat picked up. And with each pulse of my ticker, a sting of pain lanced through my left hand, centered around the stub that used to be my left pinkie. The bruises that I had received from the fights earlier were starting to ache, and the cuts on the backs of both my hands were starting to flare up as the endorphins dulled. The amount of magic that I had been throwing around in the past day was making me tired, and that weariness was making all the injuries I had received seemed larger than they probably were.

I shook my head and collected myself. Pain and fatigue was something that I had gotten used to feeling on a near monthly basis. It hadn't taken me very long after the beginning of my wizarding career to figure out a way to sort of block out the pain.

It wasn't the same as what Lasciel did back on the Citadel. What she did there was simply shut off my pain receptors and inhibitors. The method of pain control that I have figured out, however, was something a bit different.

All I needed to do was ignore it.

Simple, right? Well, not nearly as much as you'd think. Your body feels pain to begin with so that it draws your attention to the thing that's causing you pain, so that you can get away from it. To simply ignore that sensation is something that takes discipline. Soldiers learn how to do it, through the time that they spend in boot camp and all the years they spend serving. I wasn't a soldier, but I _was _a wizard, and wizards pretty much specialize in the matters of the disciplined mind.

So, I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts on what was happening around me, not within me.

First things first.

I opened my eyes and looked to my left, to see that Liara was leaned against the ceiling support as I was, clutching at her elbow, where blood seeped out of a spot between the armor plating of her hardsuit.

Second.

I looked to my right and saw that Shepard was leaned up against a crate, firing her sniper rifle as fast as she could at enemies downrange. Kaidan was crouched behind the crate, his biotics glowing in the manner that indicated he had justed used them.

Third.

I closed my eyes and put all my attention on to my sense of hearing, enhancing the sense beyond what it normally would be. I could hear the report of gunshots, loud and clear, and the clanking of metal on metal; a geth walking. There was an odd buzzing sound that came from up in the air and it seemed to move around, indicating a flying enemy- a geth drone of some kind. I could also hear the low, rumbling laughter of multiple someones at the far end of the garage. By the sound of their voices, they were big and clearly enjoying the fact that we were pinned down as we were. Multiple krogan, I assumed.

I opened my eyes, and made my way over to Liara. I moved her hand out of the way of her shot arm, and inspected the wound myself. I think she might have said something, but I didn't hear it. Too busy focusing.

The wound wasn't serious. Just a graze. Cross that off the list.

I pushed Liara gently to the side, so that I took her place in the cover. She obliged and moved down the line, making her way back over to where I had been.

I moved out of the cover and saw the geth Destroyer that I had heard thumping around. Floating around above it was a drone that seemed to be repairing the thing from a gunshot that it had probably received from Liara.

Geth drones aren't built as sturdy as troopers are. When the chain lightning that I threw at the Destroyer ached to the drone, it sparked and fizzed, and there was a small explosion from inside it's casing. It fell to the ground, unmoving.

My attention was turned back to the Destroyer, who had just brought it's rifle to bear against me. It pulled the trigger, and the rounds thumped against my coat, making the pain that was dully in the back of my mind start to make itself prevalent again.

I ignored it.

A flash of lightning flew from my dagger and into the geth platform. A large hole was torn in it's chest. It fell to the ground.

The fatigue of my use of large amounts of magic tried to worm it's way into the front of my head.

I ignored it.

I ran towards the back of the garage to see a krogan fly helplessly into the air by someone's biotics, where he was riddled with bullets in quick succession, followed by one heavier round to his head. He went limp in death as he fell to the ground with a thump.

Another krogan popped out of cover, aimed a shotgun at me, and pulled the trigger.

I was immediately thrown back from the impact in my chest. I fell to the ground, on my back, where the pain from the shot nearly became too much for me to ignore.

But I kept it out of my mind.

I whipped my pistol out of my coat pocket and into my left hand, and fired off three shots into the krogan's chest. He flinched from the pain, but that didn't stop his to my prone form. More bullets impacted him from his right, and he turned to face the offenders, only to receive a sniper round to the heart.

He fell to the ground, but he still twitched in life as his body's naturally high regeneration rate repaired the damage to the redundant heart. He started to get up, but by this time, I had as well, and placed multiple shots into his helmeted face from point blank range.

Something drew my attention to the base of the stairs that led up to a catwalk. Another large krogan had his mouth open in what seemed to be a roar, though I heard none of it. He ran towards Shepard, Kaidan, and Liara, who had advanced around the same time I had, but was hit by two warps from both of the team's biotics. He staggered backwards, only to drop to the ground when a sniper round slammed into his head.

With him down, I surveyed the room for more dangers, only to find that there were none to be had. Everything was still and quiet. So, I checked on myself, to ensure I was still in one piece.

Heart rate: slowing.

Adrenaline: lessening.

Endorphins: dulling.

The pain and weariness started to surge back into the forefront of my mind, and I tried to fight it off as best as I could, but my focus cracked under the pressure, and my head bowed forward as I groaned in pain.

"-chael!" I heard someone shout, making me jump. I looked up to see Shepard staring at me worriedly. "Michael!" She shouted, as though she had said it multiple times before.

Had she? I certainly didn't hear it…

I grunted at her in question. "Yeah?"

She put a hand on my shoulder. "You okay there? You seem out of it."

Her physical contact was something to focus on besides the weariness, so I tried to use her warm (even through the armor) hand to dig my way out of my stupor. So, I gave her the best smile that I could, which probably wasn't much, and said, "Yeah. Just tired is all. Been awhile since I've thrown around this much magic. Gimme a sec, and I'll be fine."

She paused for a second, scanning my face, then nodded, and walked over to Liara, and started to talk to her about something.

I slumped down to the ground, trying to push the weariness away from me, and only having a marginal success. I heard footsteps approach me, and Kaidan said, "You don't look too good, man."

I looked up at him from my sitting position and shrugged, saying, "Not used to this much fighting."

Kaidan tilted his head. "Didn't you say that you fight things worse than this all the time?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I did, and it's true. But I'm used to two or three skirmishes, with six enemies at most. And it usually spread out over time. In the past day, I'm pretty sure I've doubled that number. Throwing around this much magic is starting to take it out of me." I shook my head as I scowled at myself from under my mask. "I didn't come prepared for a long day." Which was just stupid of me. A wizard can do a lot of things, but we need preparation and foresight to be able to do them effectively.

Kaidan doesn't say anything, and simply offers me a hand up. I look at it for a moment, breath out heavily, and clasp his hand in mine, letting him help me pull myself up. Once I'm on my feet, Kaidan says, "Come on, best not to waste any time mopping."

I smile slightly from behind my face mask and nod. The weariness and pain in my body was certainly grabbing my attention, but I've been worse off before. The aches might have been adding up, but I can still move, and so I will.

I follow Kaidan over to where Shepard and Liara are standing, and the Irish beauty turned to face us, saying, "Gents, Liara and I have come to the decision that we need to turn the main power of the complex back on. So that's where we're going."

"What," I said, "Kaidan and I don't get a say in this?"

Shepard smiled sweetly at us. "Nope."

"Fine. But I better be getting a pay raise for this."

Shepard arched a fire-red eyebrow. "I don't pay you."

"That's right," I said. "I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. You should be thankful."

Shepard rolled her eyes, a half smile on her face, and started to make her way towards the stairs that led up to the catwalk. "It's nice to see your snark is okay."

"You're going to find that my snark is indestructible, I think," I said as I followed after her.

We went down the catwalk and passed through a door, to see two turrets facing the door on the opposite side of the hallway.

Liara's brow furrowed. "Why are the turrets facing the wrong way?"

"To keep something _in_, not out," I replied. This place was starting to give me the creeps, and the ambient magical energies that I was sensing weren't doing anything to help that feeling.

Shepard looked at the two turrets, a thoughtful look on her face. "I've got a bad feeling about this," I heard her mutter. Then she turned to face the rest of us and said. "I don't like this. Michael, you're on point, I've got your back. Kaidan, bring up the rear. Let's go."

We all nodded, and I moved up to take a position near the door at the end of the hall, with Shepard behind me. I drew my dagger from it's sheath on my thigh (which I found a bit odd, considering I don't remember putting it there), and prepped a shield spell in my mind. The acrid scent of Hellfire filled the room as I imbued my dagger with the Hellish force, making sure I had enough power to take out anything that might jump us.

I moved through the door, and looked to my left to see another door open automatically to reveal an elevator for us to take.

We all stepped in and I hit the button to take us up. When the doors opened again, we saw a hallway that seemed to be made of snowy rocks. At the end of the hall was a door, and I took point again, making my way over.

As soon as the door opened, a cacophony of gunfire blared out at us. I reacted quickly enough to get the shield spell up before any shots could hit my coat. I crouched down low to give Shepard the opportunity to take a shot or two at the geth trooper and shock trooper that were down range. The trooper fell to the ground, but the shock trooper had enough sense to get to cover before Shepard could hit her.

I advanced through the door, everyone following behind me, when multiple shots hit me in the right side of my ribs. I turned to look in that direction to see two more geth troopers firing assault rifles at me. I shifted my shield spell to protect from their shots, and one of them got lifted up by someone's biotics. I dropped the shield, aimed my dagger at the one still on the ground, and shouted, "_Lyn!_"

A bolt of red lightning, enhanced by Hellfire, shot out across the room and impacted into the geth trooper. It tore past its shields and caused the geth's chest to explode. Pieces of shrapnel shot out across the room, and the geth that was floating from the biotics was hit by the brunt of it. The chatter of Kaidan's assault rifle was the end of the trooper that floated in the air, and it fell to the ground dead.

Rounding the corner that was created by a wall divider, the shock trooper from earlier popped out of cover and started to open fire on us. At the same time, a geth trooper that was using the high ground of the upper level of the room jumped up to take shots at us as well.

Rounding my dagger on the shock trooper, I shouted, "_Fryse!_" The water molecules around the joints of the geth's legs and arms were suddenly flash frozen, and the geth stiffened as it fell to the ground.

With that taken care of for the moment, I turned my attention to the trooper that was using a thick railing as cover on the floor above us. It was being kept down by Kaidan and Liara's constant fire, while Shepard waited patiently for it to pop back up again.

I aimed my dagger at the metal railing the geth was using as cover, shouted, "Everybody duck!", and followed that up with, "_Trekke!_"

The metal rail started to screech under the pressure of the magical pulling force, and the supports started to bend and break. Everyone around me ducked when they noticed what I was doing, and the metal railing suddenly jerked and flew over our heads and crashed through the window behind us. The geth that had been hiding behind the cover was suddenly exposed, and if it could have a look on it's face of pure stupid surprise, it would have.

A shot was fired, and it fell to the ground when a round from Shepard's rifle impacted into it's head.

There was a lull of silence as the battle ended, with everyone who was still standing looking around to make sure that no one was left to jump us. I scanned my eyes on the floor that we were on, and my eyes landed on the shock trooper that I had frozen solid. It's eyelight was moving around sporadically, jumping from Kaidan to Shepard to Liara and then to me. It stopped and stared at me, seemingly trying to process something in it's mind. Then it started to wiggle around to try and get out of the ice casing that I had placed it in.

I calmly sauntered up to it, drew my pistol in my left hand, and put three shots into it's eyelight, causing it to slump in death.

I turn back around to check on my teammates. Liara looks to be rather tired, and given that she almost had her guts eviscerated not too long ago, that makes sense. Kaidan seemed to be fairing alright, which somehow didn't surprise me, and Shepard was still scanning the room, her rifle at the ready.

"Shepard," I called out to her. She turned her head to face me, silent inquiry on her face. I nodded at her arm. "You've been shot."

She looked down at her left arm and saw that I was right. She grimaced from the pain, and shook her head. "It's fine," she said. "Through and through. Just hit muscle. Nothing bad."

I walked up to her. "Still can't be much pleasant."

She grimaced again and was about to say something when there was a skittering noise that sounded throughout the room, one that seemed to be coming from the walls and air ducts. Everyone gathered around and positioned themselves to have each others back.

"That didn't sound good," I quipped.

"Animals? Wind?" Kaidan guessed, and I saw him shake his head from my right. "This place is in bad shape."

Something caught my eye from behind the glass of the upper walkway. I peered up at it, and saw this odd bug-like creature that I knew I had seen somewhere before, yet couldn't place. It's skin was pinkish, and it had an oddly jointed beak/mouth that split into four separate parts, each going in a diagonal direction. Two beady black eyes stared down at us, and these tentacles that bobbed near the head of the thing had two pod looking things on the tips.

The bug screeched and more of it's kind started to flood the room, all of them on the upper floor.

I cast a glance at Kaidan, asking, "You just had to mention animals, didn't you?"

He grimaced as he put his assault rifle on his back and drew his shotgun. "Oops?"

I started to walk towards the stairs that lead up to the floor where these creatures were, saying, "Well, let's get this done with."

I climbed up the stairs to be met with the first of the bugs, one significantly smaller, and without the tentacle things, than the one I saw in the window. It rushed at me.

I set it on fire.

It started to flail around, trying to put itself out. Clearly it had never learned "stop, drop, and roll", because when it hit the back wall, opposite of the stairs, it kept skittering around, the constant movement putting the fire in even more contact with more oxygen, letting the fire burn hotter. It eventually started to slow down it's flailing, and slumped to the ground, where it kept burning. The smell of burnt flesh and sulfur and brimstone filled the air around the room.

I looked to my left to see another come at me, only to be stopped from Kaidan's shotgun. The one behind that took two sniper rounds to the torso. They both dropped to the ground.

I started to move up, and rounded the corner to get onto the catwalk that overlooked the rest of the room. Once I faced the length of the catwalk, another of the small bugs jumped at me from my right, where it had hidden in the darkness of one of the rooms there.

I felt the things push me into the glass that acted as the railing of the catwalk. I spun around and hit the glass face first, whereupon the bug exploded, causing flesh and acid to spew all over the place. It was a good thing I had hit my face against the glass. If I were faced the other way, my eyes would have been burned out of their sockets from the acid.

As it was, the burning substance sizzled on my coat, not able to tear it's way through the protective spells, but eating away the pigments of the coats color.

I looked down the catwalk, still lying on my stomach, and saw two more bugs, these ones bigger and with those tentacle arms. One of them was being hit by someone's biotic warp, where the farthest one was being hit by both sniper rounds and shotgun pellets.

I got into a sitting position, aimed my dagger at the one being hit by the warp, and shouted, "_Hexus!_" The magic shot forth and hit the bug, where the biotics flared brightly for a moment before it straight up exploded, causing more acid and flesh and blood to splatter the walls and floor.

With all the immediate threats taken care of, I started to get back onto my feet, and Shepard walked over and put her hand under my arm to help me up.

"Had me worried there for a second, Michael," she told me. "Thought that acid would get through that magic coat of yours."

I snorted and gave the Irish beauty an amused look. "You think that I would bind my coat with spells that protected against bullets, but not against acid and fire and the like? The things I go up against, they're more likely to _melt_ my face off than try to _shot_ my face off."

Shepard smiled with the corner of her mouth, muttering, "Credit where it's due, I suppose." Then she cast her eyes over to the gory remains of the bug thing that I blew up. "What did you do to that thing? For that matter, what they Hell _are _they?"

I walked over to the remains of the big bug that was riddled with bullets, crouched down, and said, "Honestly? Not a clue. But I can't help but feel I've seen these things before…" I tilted my head and looked closer at the bug, searching my memory for when I had seen the thing in the past.

"_The Soul Gaze, my host,_" I heard Lasciel whisper to me. "_The Soul Gaze that you had with the krogan. These creatures were one of the many corpses that were strewn about his soul's landscape._"

I thought back to the memory of the Soul Gaze the fallen angel was talking about. The images appeared in my mind, as fresh as if I had just gotten them, and I remembered seeing the corpses of creatures that looked extremely similar to the one in front of me.

Reviewing the history of the krogan people that I knew of, I remembered that the krogan were uplifted to fight off a galactic threat. One that came in the form of insectoid. The pictures of the creatures from back then were a bit more fuzzy than the images that I got from the Soul Gaze, but I was sure that I was at least onto something.

"Rachni," I heard myself say. "I think these are rachni."

"Impossible," Kaidan said instantly. "The rachni were wiped out over two thousand years ago by the krogan."

I looked over my shoulder at the man. "You think that it's that easy to commit genocide? On a galactic scale? There's bound to be somethings that the Council missed." I looked back at Shepard, who was staring at the body with a questioning gaze. "I'm pretty sure that these are rachni. Wouldn't bet my life on it, but I'm fairly confident."

She shifted her gaze from the bullet riddled corpse to me, then over to the smear that used to be the other big bug. "And that one exploded. Same with the one that tackled you. Think they don't like magic much?"

I shook my head and stood up. "No, that was something else entirely. Magic and mass effect fields don't get along. If an active mass effect field is introduced to magical energies, then one of three things can happen. One, the mass effect field just stops working. Two, it explodes. Or three, it implodes. I call it the arcane effect. When Liara threw that warp at the bug, I hexed it up, and caused it to explode, taking the bug with it. As for the smaller one?" I shrugged. "I think those things are meant to do that. Kamikaze style attacks and such."

Shepard's eyes widened a bit, and Liara and Kaidan took a bit of a step back from me, probably not wanting to explode. "You make mass effect fields explode? You're not going to blow up the _Normandy_, are you?" She cast her eyes over to the biotics of the team. "Or any of my crew."

I shook my head. "No, that won't happen. To affect a biotic with the arcane effect, I need to actively push magic onto them, like I did with BitchPants earlier. Most of the time, anyway. As for the _Normandy_, my simple proximity is enough to cause the arcane effect, so simply don't give me a reason to go into engineering, and we'll be just dandy."

"Alright…" She said, though she still didn't sound like she was comfortable with it. She turned to look back at the bullet filled corpse. "Rachni, huh?" She said. Then she sighed. "Things just got a bit more complicated. And if we want any answers, we're going to have to get to the labs." She jerked her head to the door at the end of the catwalk. "Let's get moving people."

We went through the door and found another elevator waiting for us. We took it up.

When the elevator let us off, we went through a door that opened up to a room with two doors on either wall, with slight ramps that led up to them. The door on the left had a holographic sign that showed the front of a train, where the one on the left showed a sign that had a vaguely triangular symbol that had a dot in the center. At the far end of the room, directly opposite of us, was an open door frame with the sign of a satellite dish. Right in front of the door frame was a proverbial horde of the small rachni bugs.

The saw us, and started to sprint in our direction. I got to the head of our little group, pointed my dagger at the approaching mini-horde, imbued it with Hellfire, and shouted, "_Brann!_"

I gout of flame spit forth from the tip of the dagger, and all the little insects simply ran into it. They all were light ablaze, with no concern for their own health whatsoever. Some of them simply burned to death, while others exploded in a last ditch effort to kill us.

Several exploding bugs and high pitched screeches later, all the bugs were dead, some charred corpses on the ground, while others were gory messes that painted the walls, floor, and ceiling.

I dropped my arm back to my side and frowned. "You know," I said, "these guys are just a bit too mindless."

"What do you mean?" Liara asked.

I shrugged. "Sorry. Thinking out loud. But what I mean is that they gave themselves up a bit too quickly. It's as though they don't have self preservation instincts. From what I've read, the rachni operate on a sort of hive mind. And only insects disconnected from their hive mind are this frenzied."

The asari tilted her head. "I suppose that's true."

We made our way to the open door frame, and entered the room to see a big circular computer. We moved around it to find an entrance to a small user interface. Shepard stepped inside the circular computer's center, and hovered her hand around a button. She faced us, saying, "I'm going to get his thing back online. You guys stay on watch." Then she pressed the button. The platform she was standing on lowered down into the center of the computer, where she could hit the manual reboot button, or whatever it was that she needed to do.

A few minutes later, and the platform started to rise back up. When it reached the top, a holographic image of a woman appeared in front of Shepard, it standing just a bit too close.

As Shepard took a step back to give herself some room, the VI said, "It looks like you're trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?" For some reason, the image of that annoying little paperclip on the old versions of microsoft word came into my mind.

That annoying little shit…

While I daydreamed about the violent death of an inanimate object, Shepard was busy saying, "Help would be great. Who are you?"

The VI responded, "This system is monitored to respond to the name 'Mira'. May I ask your name?"

"Commander Shepard. I work for the Citadel's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

"One moment please." There was a moment of silence as the VI processed Shepard's credentials. After the moment passed, it said, "Citadel authority confirmed. You are entitled to Secure Access of all systems. Please note that queries relating to corporate secrets require Privileged Access. Privileged Access is only available to Binary Helix executives. This system is ready to process inquiries. You may access me at any holographic interface within Peak 15."

Shepard thought for a moment, before saying, "I need to find Matriarch Benezia."

The VI responded promptly. "Lady Benezia departed on the passenger tramway to the Rift Station subsidiary labs." There was a slight pause before the VI continued. "User alert. The tramway system is currently inoperable."

Shepard tilted her head. "What's the situation here?"

"One moment, please," the VI said. "Diagnostics in progress." There was another pause, then the VI continued. "Critical Failure: main reactor shutdown in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required." Another pause. "Critical Failure: Landline connections are disabled. Passenger tramway systems are offline. Report complete. Do you have an additional systems status query?"

Shepard shook her head. "That's all I need right now."

"Very well, Commander," the VI said. "Logging you out."

Shepard turned back to face us, and said, "Well, we know what we need to do." She thought for a moment, then said. "We'll split up, take care of this faster. Kaidan, take Liara and head for the reactor. Michael and I will head for the landline connections on the roof." Kaidan nodded, as did Liara, and they both left for the main room we came from.

I watched them go, then turned to Shepard. "Alright, boss-lady. Just you and me." I pointed a thumb over my shoulder, aimed at the door that lead to the roof. "Let's get going?"

Shepard nodded. "Yup. Let's get this done quick."

I stepped off to the side, and motioned for the door. "Ladies first."

Shepard gave me an amused look. "How gentlemanly of you."

I smiled. "I have my moments."

"When you're not busy staring at my ass?"

"Well, yeah."

We both got in the elevator, and Shepard asked. "What's up with that anyway? Why do you stare _so _much?" Her mouth quirked at the side. "Not that I'm complaining"

Now it was my turn to look amused. "You did strike me as the kind of girl who appreciates being appraised." I shook my head. "I don't mean nothing by it. I've just come to learn that there's a lot of ugly out there in the galaxy. I try to focus on the beautiful, so my life doesn't seem as dark. And I've always found women to be an artform of their own. I find the beautiful where I can, and savor it as much as I can."

Shepard stared at me, an eyebrow quirked. "Interesting philosophy."

I shrugged. "Hey, at the end of the day, I've got a smile on my face. That's more than can be said for some people out there." I looked at Shepard's face, smiling at the corner of my mouth. "You're good for my moral." I shrugged again, the smile dropping from my face. "And besides. Unlike some people out in the galaxy, I know when I've crossed the line and should stop." My voice didn't exactly bubble with anger, but it was close.

Shepard tilted her head. "Sounds like there's a story there."

Before I could respond, the door to the elevator opened, and I stepped out. "Come on," I said, hoping to avoid the topic we were about to broach. "Let's take care of this landline problem." By the look on Shepard's face, however, I knew that we would be talking about this again soon.

But I really don't feel like thinking about the time Maggie almost got raped.

We went down a corridor to another door, opened it, and were hit with the brunt of the cold storm that raged out here. The winds were heavy and strong, with enough snow that made you squint your eyes to prevent any flakes from hitting your eyeball.

Shepard drew her sniper rifle, and I resettled my grip on my dagger. Immediately, another horde of worker rachni ran straight at us, and I crouched down low when I shouted, "_Brann!_", so that Shepard could shot at the bigger rachni over my head.

The little kamikazes were taken care of just as quickly as the small horde from before, with the same reaction as before too. High pitched screeches of pain and small acidic explosions sounded off, adding to the cacophony of the howling winds around us. One of the soldier rachni tried to spit some acid at us, but I blocked it with my shield spell, and Shepard shot it dead in the face. It dropped to the ground.

We advanced forward and took some cover behind some kind of computer looking thing. Another large bug came at us from the side, but was struck dead by the glorious power of Thor. Well, it was actually my glorious power, but the rachni was struck dead by a bolt of lightning, so it makes sense, I promise.

Shepard tapped my shoulder, and I looked at her. "Move up," she said, and I nodded.

I rounded around my cover, and popped up my shield. It was just in time, too, because a glob of acid was spit right at me. It impacted with my shield and started to sizzle, trying to burn it's way though the spell. Sad for the acid, but it can't burn through pure defensive energy. I dropped the shield and drew out my pistol, firing three shots, two hitting the chest, on in the head, right at the same time that Shepard's rifle reported again, and another soldier dropped to the ground.

Total rachni soldiers killed: four. Amount left: one.

The remaining one skittered right at us, it's tentacle arms flailing around in an attempt to chop us apart, but my shield came back up as I dropped my pistol to the ground. It impacted with the shield, rebounded, and tried again. It kept doing this for the next half minute, while Shepard had quietly work her way around it by going around the other side of the cover. The sniper rifle sounded, and the bug dropped dead.

We scanned around the battlefield, looking for any more immediate threats, but we found none. despite that, I still had the feeling of being watched that I got when the malk from earlier attacked us, so, as I kept my head on a swivel, I said to Shepard, "Hey, pretty lady, I don't think we're done here."

Out of my peripheral, I saw Shepard nod in agreement. "Yeah," she said. "I feel it, too."

"Go for the console over there," I said, jerking my head at the item in question. "I'll keep watch." Shepard nodded her agreement and made her way over to the console.

Just then, as Shepard's back turned, I saw a feline form jump up on top of one of the large computers that covered the roof, and lunge at her.

I reacted much faster than I thought I could have.

I whipped my dagger to bear, pointed it at the sailing malk, and shouted, "_Kraft!_", lacing the spell with enough Hellfire that the kinetic blow could have torn a hole in the side of a concrete building.

It impacted with the malk, causing the cat to jerk to the side and smash into the side of another large computer. the computer was dented and probably damaged beyond repair, but I didn't care. I heard the satisfying crack of the malks spine as it hit the edge of the computer, and it spun in the air as it continued to fly. It landed on the ground with a heavy thump, and it started to make a disgusting mewling sound of pain.

I stalked over to the malk, past a surprised Shepard, and pointed my dagger at the cat, the runes on the blade glowing a dangerous red, my face set in a snarl.

"Mercy, wizard," it pleaded at me, it's voice raspy and with inflections on the wrong syllables. "Please, wizard, mercy!"

Oh, yeah. Did I forget to mention that those things could talk? They can't do it very well, and their voices make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but they can talk.

"Tell me who told you to attack us," I snarled at the cat. "Tell me truthfully, thrice times, and I may let you live." My voice, while snarling, never went past a dangerous whisper, making the threat all the more intimidating.

"The Lady Benezia told my pack that you would be hunting her," the cat said, strain in it's unsettling voice from the pain.

"Not good enough," I said through gritted teeth. "Tell me, now! Who told you to hunt us?!"

"Archk," the malk said in pain. "The Lady Benezia was the one who brought us here!"

I crouched down and gently placed the tip of the blade to the malk's neck. Immediately, the spot where the steel of the blade and the flesh of the malk met started to smoke, not from the Hellfire, but from the contact of the faerie's flesh on the iron in the dagger. "Thrice I ask, and done," I snarled into the malk's face. "Who. Told. You. To. Hunt us?"

The malk seemed as though it were trying to hold something back from exiting through it's throat, but it eventually stammered, "The puppet man! Saren!"

The thing about faeries is that they have a compulsive and instinctual reaction to things that happen in threes. If you ask a question thrice times, the faerie in question needs to make sure that the answer is correct, even if they can't outright lie to you.

They don't like being compelled to answer something thrice by a mortal, however. Not that I gave much of a shit. The malk before me was probably paralyzed from the waist down due to the impact on it's spine. It's not an injury that the malk can't come back from, unlike mortals, but it would atleast put the cat out of commision for a good while.

It did not surprise me in the least that it was Saren who was hunting us down, but I needed it to be confirmed by someone. When a malk works alone, they get scared and turn into cowards. They'd gladly tell you what you needed to know in exchange for their lives, so long as it didn't put their pack at risk. They, at least, had that going for them.  
What caught my attention was the fact that the malk called Saren, "The puppet man". That would imply two things. That he either had the ability to control the actions of other people, most likely through mind control, or it was _he _who was being used by someone. And if that's the case, then who's pulling the strings? I'm not sure which idea scares me more; the fact that Saren might have access to mind control, or that someone else does, and is using Saren to achieve their own goals.

Or maybe the malk was simply mistaken. After all, speaking truthfully doesn't mean speaking correctly.

God, I hope it's the latter.

I sneered at the cat, and stood up, taking the burning tip of my dagger off of the malk's throat. "Be gone from here in the next thirty seconds, and I'll spare your life. Remain, and I will burn you alive."

The cat nodded rapidly, and shadows seemed to coalesce into form around the malk. The darkness covered the cat completely, until all you could see was a spot of inky blackness. The shadows then suddenly dissipated, and the cat was gone.

I sighed, my voice starting to fill with the weariness of all the spellcasting again, in addition to the fact that I just made a cat practically shit itself to confirm something that I already knew. Not exactly a pleasant way to go about life.

I turned around, going to pick up my pistol, and was that Shepard was staring at me with an odd expression on her face. I stopped where I was and asked, "What?"

She shook her head slowly for a moment, then jerked hit, her eyes closing for a second, before she looked me in the face. "Just… wasn't expecting that, is all. For you to get that vicious, I mean."

I grimaced a bit, and kept walking towards the pistol. "Wasn't expecting it either… It just kinda happened…"

I picked up my pistol, and turned around to see that Shepard had moved over to the console that activated the landline thingy that we were after. A few moments with Shepard pressing some buttons, and there was a heavy clunking sound as the landlines were reactivated. She turned to face me, nodded, and said, "Alright, let's met up with Kaidan and Liara."

We both left for the elevator.

When we got to Mira's memory core, we saw that Kaidan and Liara were waiting for us. Shepard nodded as we walked up to them. "I take it you took care of the reactor?" She asked, to which Kaida nodded. Shepard tilted her head. "Run into much trouble?"

Kaidan shrugged. "We hit some geth down there, but nothing we couldn't handle. Though, there was another one of those cats- malks, did you call them?- that was with the geth. Gave us some trouble, but we took care of it."

"That makes three, then," I said.

Shepard looked at me. "That important?"

I shrugged. "Well, a malk pack usually has five members at a minimum. If we're lucky, we've already taken the majority of the pack out of the problem."

"And if we're unlucky?" Kaidan asked.

"If we're unlucky…" I said, hesitating on the answer. "If we were unlucky, I'm pretty we'd be dead already."

Shepard's brows went up. "What makes you say that?"

"I've seen a malk pack that went somewhere into the forties in numbers. I know for a fact that there are bigger ones out there, too. That many steroid cats running around, and we'd have been swamped. They wouldn't be using the hit-and-run tactics that they have been, they'd just swarm us with sheer numbers and strength."

Shepard thought for a moment, then shook her head. "This is interesting and all, but we need to get going. Benezia isn't going to wait for us."

"Or maybe she is," I quipped, "and that's the reason she hasn't left the planet in the past few days."

We made our way back into the main room, and went through the door that led to the newly-operating tramway. We went down a hallway, passed through another door, and entered an elevator. Once the lift got moving, Mira's voice over the intercom said, "User alert! Loose contaminants in the decontamination chamber. Access to passenger tramway inadvisable."

I looked up at the ceiling of the elevator, then sighed. "Guess we're not quite done with the whole 'fighting' thing yet, are we?"

"You never struck me as a guy who indulged in wishful thinking, Michael," Shepard said from next to me.

I shrugged. "A guy can dream, can't he?"

The elevator doors opened up to a hallway that had two doors on the left side, one closer to the lift than the other. We made our way to the closest one, stepped in, and found the control room for the decontamination. On the wall where the computer was, there was a large window that showed multiple rachni soldiers trapped inside the small sterilization room. When they noticed us, they skittered up to the window and waved their tentacles threateningly, but did nothing else.

"They must be locked in there," Kaidan said. "We might be able to get rid of them from here, on that terminal."

Shepard stepped up to the console and bent over it to start typing something in. As the moments passed, with Shepard trying to repair the computer, or whatever it is she's doing, I saw her bit her lower lip in thought and cock her hips to one side. Then she had a thought, smiled, and cocked her hips to the other side. All of which was distracting as Hell.

After a few more seconds, there was a sudden explosion of fire inside the decontamination chamber, with all the rachni being set ablaze. Their high pitched screeches could be heard from through the glass, and they slowly died away as they burned.

Suddenly, from right behind us, the large vent on the ground exploded upward, revealing a large rachni, who started to swing its tentacles.

Kaidan reacted the fastest. He whipped his shotgun to bear, pulled the trigger, and blew the head of the bug clean off. It fell to the ground in a bloody mess.

There was a moment of silence as we all waited to see if any others were coming around to jump us. After the second passed, I looked at Kaidan and said, "Nice shot, Tex."

"I aim to please," he responded.

"No, you aimed to blow its face off."

"Let's go," Shepard said, interrupting our banter. There was a slight smile on her face, though. "We should get to the tramway." We all nodded and followed after her.

We went through the decom. chamber, passed through a long hallway, and found ourselves a very train station-esque room, with a high, vaulted ceiling, plenty of seating around for waiting passengers, and the tram itself.

We made our way over to the tram, and before I got on, I couldn't help but say, "All aboard! Departing Sanity Station! Next stop, Loonyville!"

Shepard looked over her shoulder at me from on the tram, and shook her head. "You've always got something to say, don't you?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "It usually makes little sense, but it's almost always funny. Now, come on. Let's get this crazy train moving."

Shepard nodded, and moved over to the console of the tram, while I went over to one of the seats, plopping my ass down to catch my breath. Kaidan sat across from me, Liara a seat away from him, and when tram got moving, Shepard took a seat next to me on my right.

There was silence between us all, only to be broken by the sound of the tram's wheels on the track.

I closed my eyes as the fatigue caught back up with me, and I bowed my head forward, barely suppressing a groan. I really should have foreseen the amount of fighting that we were going to be doing, and prepared properly. As it is, the weariness wanted me to get a cold beer and have a nice sit down in a lazyboy, maybe even take a nap while I was at it. The bruises all along my chest and ribs certainly added to that desire. I couldn't, though. Didn't have the time. Or the beer.

More silence stretched in the tram, and I looked up to see how the others were doing.

Liara looked nearly as tired as I felt. I said it earlier, and I'll say it again, but nearly getting your guts torn out by a giant cat is enough to take it out of pretty much anyone. She looked like she needed to take a nap, too.

Kaidan looked none too worse for wear, though I did notice a bead of sweat on his brow that hadn't been there before.

I looked to my right, and saw Shepard there, sitting in her combat armor, somehow making it a fashion statement. She really didn't look too tired, and the bullet wound that she had gotten from the geth earlier had stopped bleeding almost as soon as she got it. Her arms were folded over her stomach, and her green eyes glittered as she stared back at me.

I raised an eyebrow in question, wondering what she was looking at me for.

Shepard shrugged in a manner that I took to mean "Just thinking, is all."

I grunted silently.

Wonder what she was thinking about.

The tram started to slow down, then came to a gentle stop, and a voice synthetic voice said, "Now arriving at Rift Station."

We all got up. "Let's get going," Shepard said, and she stepped out of the opened tram doors.

We followed after her.

* * *

We stepped out of the quarantined zone, and I said, "I told you so."

Shepard glowered at me from over her shoulder.

The situation here in the labs on Peak 15 can be summed up in one word: bad. In two? Not good.

To start, there's the obvious rachni infestation that's been going around. When we got off the tram, we went up to the barracks that the staff in the labs sleep in. There were some survivors of the initial rachni attack, and they were all hold up there, with the ERCS guards keeping watch, led by a guy named Captain Ventralis. He seemed reasonable enough to me, though from the look of him and his men, you could tell that they were only standing because they were hopped up on stims.

Anyway, he let us into their little fortified area, and we started to talk around, ask questions (it felt very much at home for me, being a PI). There was this one volus, Han Olar, who was the only survivor from the hot labs, which is where the main body of the rachni are nesting. When we talked to him, he seemed very… off, to me. He told us how the only reason he survived getting out of the hot labs was because he had shut the tram door out of the lab on a doctor who was running with him, causing her to be bait. The guy told this story with utterly no remorse at all, and I had a hard time getting myself angry with him. While he wasn't upset that he sacrificed that doctor to save his own weezy hide, he certainly didn't look happy about it. Odds are better than good that he won't be suffering from survivor's guilt any time soon, but there was definitely something wrong with him.

When we asked him about the rachni, he started to explain how someone found an egg on a derelict ship somewhere, but before he could finish, some other scientists interrupted him, asking the volus if they wanted to get them all killed. We got no more info from the little alien after that, and we had to move on.

When we were walking away from the volus, I had told Shepard my suspicions about how I thought this entire place was just a bit… wrong. How this entire place, and more than a few people in it, just rubbed me the wrong way. My instincts were always good on picking up the subtle things in people's behavior, the stuff that I couldn't see, and when they told me to listen, I did. They had yet to steer me wrong, and I was under the philosophy that it was better to be safe, but paranoid than it was to be unaware and dead.

Shepard, however, dismissed my concerns, saying that the people around the barracks hadn't had much in the way of sleep and were all on edge. They were bound to act weird. That argument made sense, sure, but it didn't really put me at ease. I told Shepard that, by the time we leave, one of the doctors would try to kill us.

Hence the "I told you so," from above. But that's jumping ahead a bit.

Back in the main room where people were lazing about, there was this asari who was oddly calm about the entire "possible death" thing. Alestia Iallis was rude, irritable, and a rather sore sort, and whenever we asked her any questions, she just blew us off, not too dissimilar to Anoleis from earlier. Like I said, she was just too calm about the situation. I mean, Ventralis was calm about the whole thing, but he needed to be in order to do his job, and there was a certain amount of nervous undertone whenever he talked. Han Olar was calm, but I'm pretty sure he's insane at this point. So, this Iallis lady was either doing her job, despite the fact that she was just standing around, or she was insane.

She turned out to be both, but, again, that's a bit ahead of this.

The barracks had a med-bay around somewhere, so we went there next, where we met a man named Dr. Cohan. The doctor seemed a bit irritated when we first showed up, but eventually became more polite as the conversation went on.

And it was an interesting one.

Turns out, one of the projects that Peak 15 had been working on was some sort of biological weapon, designed to infect someone, then be unable to transfer from one person to the other, due to it's short viability life-span. Anyway, when Mira had gone offline however long ago, they had been conducting a test of some kind of the bio weapon, and it had gotten loose and infect some of the scientists. Cohen mentioned at how a cure was designed but never synthesised down in the lab that the bio weapon got out in, and that it only needed to be created and retrieved. The problem was is that Ventralis was a bit too twitchy about letting a bio weapon out on the remaining survivors, despite the fact that the weapon's viability life-span was incredibly short.

Shepard, being who she was, offered to help get the antidote from the lab for Cohen, and the doctor agreed.

So we went to Ventralis to try and convince him to let us into the quarantine lab. It took a bit of convincing, but he eventually agreed to let us go in, on the condition that we would need a bio scan on coming out, and that if there were an abnormalities, we would stay in there. Shepard didn't like the sound of that, but agreed anyway.

From there, things went more smoothly than I had thought they would. We got to the lab in no time, went through without trouble, and got the cure for the bio weapon faster than you could say "bubonic plague". Things were going fine. Maybe things would turn out fine for once, without things getting complicated. Right?

Well, when we turned around, we see the asair, Alestia Iallis, standing there with a pistol in her hand, a few geth behind her, and multiple asari commandos (we only found out they were commandos, and not random doctors with gun, because Liara told us). Turns out I was right, because Iallis was a sleeper agent of Benezia's, who tried to kill us. She's dead now.

Thus the reason that I was smug about my paranoia and Shepard was glowering at me.

"Michael?" She asked me, her voice irritated.

"Yes, Shepard?" I responded sweetly.

"Shut up."

"Got it, boss-lady." I cast my eyes to the side, and saw the body of the turian who had been guarding the door to the quarantine lab. His neck had been twisted to an impossible angle. "Well, we know what happened to that guard, at least."

Shepard cast her eyes aside at the body, but didn't comment.

When we passed Han Olar, the volus spoke up, pointing a thumb to a door across the room from the elevator we were headed for. "They came out of there?"

We turned to face him. "Who did the what now?" I asked.

"The synthetics that attacked you," Olar offered. "Benezia brought them with her."

I looked over to the door that volus had pointed at, and noticed a sign that said "Maintenance." I nudged Shepard with my shoulder. "Maybe we can go through there, sneak up on Benezia."

Shepard looked at me and nodded. "I had the same thought." She turned back to the volus. "Know a way for us to get in there?"

"A team lead would have access. Like Dr. Cohen," Olar said. "He's in the medical bay."

Shepard nodded. "Then we know where to go." She turned on a heel and strutted toward the elevator.

We went up the elevator and made our way to the med-bay. When we got there, we saw Dr. Cohan fussing over a computer, muttering to himself. We walked up to him, and Shepard held out a vial of something to him.

He looked at it, and his eyes got a bit wide. "Is that the cure? You did it?"

Shepard nodded. "I think so. Kinda hard to concentrate while dodging gunfire."

The doctor's eyes got wider. "You were attacked? I- I don't know anything about that! I hate conflict. I've never even fire anyone. I have my receptionist do it." Despite that, those people who got fired still know it was his order, and probably still hate him for it. He sighed, and started to talk in a hushed tone. "Look. The guards. They've been more on edge since you've gotten here. I think they were expecting you."

I glowered. "Of course they were," I muttered. They were probably all on Benezia's payroll to some degree or another.

Cohen went on. "There are more labs in the back of the mess hall. The guards won't even let me back there. Just people with 'clearance'."

"What about the maintenance area?" Shepard asked. "Do you have access to that?"

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "The maintenance area? Yes, take my pass. But there's just snow back there." Then he took the phial from Shepard's hand, finally, and said, "Let me see that." He examined it for a moment, then said, "An extension of Phelps' work? I thought he was on the right track." He turned back to us. "I can't thank you enough." he thought about what he just said, then snorted. "God. What a cliche. You've saved lives here, you know that?"

Shepard held up the pass that Cohen had given her. "Way I see it, this makes us even. Glad to help, either way."

Cohan nodded. "Now, I need to administer this. Thanks again." With that, he turned to the computer he was on earlier and started to type again.

We left and made our way back down the elevator. Once we stepped out, I couldn't help but say, "Ye Gods, it's like we've been walking in circles all day."

Kaidan looked at me. "Don't PIs do this kind of thing all the time? Walking back and forth, comparing info, stuff like that?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I _enjoy_ walking a rut into the ground."

"Hey, look at it this way," Shepard joined in. "Like this, you can keep those detective skills sharp. You and Garrus can compare notes on the best way to follow useless leads."

I snorted as we got to the maintenance door. Shepard swiped the pass and the door flew open. "At least Liara isn't picking on me. Ain't that right, Blue?"

The asari professor jumped when she heard her name, clearly having been deep in thought. "I am sorry, what are we talking about?"

I furrowed my brow and frowned from under my face mask. "Liara, you okay?"

She hesitated for a second, casting her eyes to Shepard and Kaidan, who also had looks of concern and curiosity. Then she sighed and said, "I just… We are getting close, and I can't help but feel nervous."

I nodded. I put a hand on her shoulder and spoke reassuringly. "You knew that it would come to this, and yet, despite knowing that, being here isn't any easier. She is, after all, your mother. I get it." I patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Liara, you'll be fine."

She looked at my face, her eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you, Michael."

I smiled from beneath my mask. "I'm not the only one you should thank."

Liara smiled and turned to Shepard and Kaidan, nodding her thanks to them.

We continued down the icy pathway, and saw that the door to continue was being guarded by a single rachni soldier.

Shepard held up her hand, signaling for us to stop. Then, she drew out her sniper rifle, and fired at the bug once, nailing it right in the brain. It fell to the ground.

We went through another series of doors. Then we came to a door with the sign of a beaker with some kind of bubbly substance in it; the sign to the labs.

We entered the door to find ourselves in a large room. Hanging from the center of the room, there was the largest rachni we had seen to date, trapped inside of a reinforced glass crate. On a raised platform near the rachni was an asari woman in a black leather dress with an odd looking aht on her head. All around the perimeter of the room were catwalks with crates conveniently placed for cover should a firefight break out.

As we stepped farther into the room, I heard the asari woman say, "You do not know the privilege of being a mother." Ye Gods, was she… "There is power in creations. To shape life. Turn it toward happiness or despair." By Odin's ravens, she is…

She's monologuing.

"Her children were to ours," who I presumed to be Benezia continued. "Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." She finally turned to face us, walking towards the top of the stairs of the raised platform. "I will not be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation."

"Liara's here because she wants to be," Shepard said. "Not because I asked her to."

Benezia raised an eyebrow. "Indeed?" She looked at the young professor. "What have you told her about me, Liara?"

Liara seemed more tired than anything else, but the more she spoke the more her frustration and fear seemed to come out in her speech. "What could I say, mother? That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you?! What could I possibly say?!"

Benezia sneered and turned to look back at Shepard. "Have you faced an asari commando before? Few humans have."

I sighed. "I take it there's no way to settle this with peacefully?"

Benezia looked at me and shook her head. "Indeed not." Her biotics flared as she formed a shield around herself.

"Then I've got just one question for you, then." I said. I cast my eyes over to Shepard, who was looking back at me, and seemed to realise where I was going with this. A slight nod of her head gave ascent for me to continue on. "Have you ever faced off against a _wizard_ before? Because, if so, you should know that using biotics around one is a stupid idea." Then drew my dagger, thrust it forward and shouted, "_Hexus!_"

The magic shot out of me and hit the Lady dead on, her biotics flaring up intensely for a moment before suddenly imploding with the sickening sound of bones being crushed. Benezia had little time to scream in pain before she died, but she tried for it anyway, only for it to suddenly get cut off with her death.

Remember back on the Citadel when I said killing a mortal is against the Laws of Magic? Yeah, _that_ is exactly what I wasn't supposed to do.

There were two asari commandos who were coming up from behind Benezia who had a front row seat to seeing their Lady get utterly destroyed by a mere word of, what was to them, some punk ass, big shot human. The looks of shock on their faces didn't lessen any as they were shot at by the rest of our little group.

I looked down the catwalk to my right to see a geth sniper start to line up his shot on one of us. I raised my left hand, called forth a shield, and reached my right hand to the left pocket that held my pistol.

The broad shield I called up was enough to stop the sniper just in time, and I dropped the shield as I brought the pistol to bear. Three carefully placed shots later, and the sniper was down for the count.

I turned back to see one of the two commandos on the raised platform fall down from a pistol round from Liara, while the other one was nowhere to be seen. Either dead, or still in cover.

I decided to take a risk and jumped up the stairs to the raised platform, putting away my pistol in exchange for my knife. True enough, I found three asari corpses littering the floor: Benezia's and two asari commandos.

Something in front of me, down another flight of stairs, drew my attention. A geth with a rocket launcher was exiting from a door and pointed the rocket right at me, ready to fire.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I whipped around to see a malk sailing through the air, trying to get a sneak attack on me. Moving quickly, I took a small sidestep away from the malk, and as it flew by, I grabbed it in mid air and tossed it right into the rocket that was just fired from the geth rocket trooper. It impacted into the rocket, and it's leg and half its face was blown off in the blast. It impacted with the floor, bleed profusely, dead.

I aimed my dagger at the geth, shouted, "_Lyn!_", and shot a bolt of lightning at the geth. It hit, and tore through the thing's chest easily.

Suddenly, something tackled me from my right side, from the direction of the big rachni's cage. My dagger fell out of my hand, and I twisted as I fell and landed on my back, just in time to see a malk land on my chest, raise a paw at me, claws extended, and take a swipe at the only part of my head that wasn't covered; my eyes.

I was fast enough to get an arm in the way, and I fumbled my right hand to try and grope my daggers handle. The malk on top of me struggled and tried to swipe at me some more, but I either stopped it with an arm or got my head out of the way just in time.

My hand found purchase on the familiar material of my daggers grip, and I plunged the tip of the knife into the ribs of the malk. Immediately, the things screeched and jumped off of me, trying to get the knife out. It wasn't lucky enough, however, because the smoke that had risen out from the wound had turned into a full on flame that started to spread quickly across the malks fur. It struggled and thrashed and clawed at itself to get the knife out, but it ran out of time as the flames consumed it.

A random flash of sympathy ran through me as I watched the malk's fighting lessen. I knew just what that felt like, to be so utterly helpless to a raging fire.

A broad hand reached under my arm and drew me to my feet. My eyes snapped to the assailant, to see that Kaidan was helping me to my feet. I nodded at him, answering the question of concern in his eyes. He nodded back, and turned to scan around the room.

It was just then that I noticed that all the sounds of combat had ceased, and that Shepard, Liara, Kaidan, me, and the rachni were the only things left alive in the room. Or active, in the geths case.

Shepard and Liara were just circling around the room, and walked up the steps that had the mangled corpse of the malk that took the rocket at the base. Shepard stepped over the body, asking, "I take it these are the last ones?"

I looked at the two bodies and nodded. "Yeah, most likely. If there were more, they'd probably have made their move by now."

Shepard reached the top of the stairs and looked at the cat's body that was still on fire. "What'd you do to that one?"

I shrugged. "Oh, you know. Set its blood on fire."

Everyone stared at me.

I pulled down my hood and mask, and ran my hand through my hair. For some reason, Shepard and Liara watched the movement. I walked up to the burning corpse and drew out the dagger. Instantly, the flames started to die down and wither away. I turned back to the group, who were still staring at me. "Faeries don't like iron. Like, at all. It's their Achilles Heel. It literally sets their blood on fire, or, if it doesn't, it positions them so badly that they have an eighty percent chance of dying." I shrugged. "It's, like, the only definite advantage that mortals have against the Fae." I held up my knife, which was covered in dried blood. "My dagger is made of steel, which has iron in it. Real useful against the Fae, just like you saw."

"Good to know," Shepard said. Then she jerked her head at Benezia's corpse and said, "Check her pockets. She might have something we need." Liara looked none too comfortable with that idea, and Shepard winced in apology.

Being the closest to the corpse, I walked over and rummaged through her pockets while Shepard walked up to the glass container that held the big ass bug. Kaidan went to stand guard at the stairs on the left, while Liara took the right. I saw her watching me go through her mother's pockets.

My hands found purchase on something in a hip pocket, and I pulled it out to see an OSD. I held it up as I said, "Shepard, found something."

She looked over her shoulder at me and nodded. "Take it with. We'll give it to Tali to sift through when we get back on the _Normandy_."

I nodded and stuffed the little thing into one of my many pockets. Then I grabbed both of the late Lady's wrists and folded her hands over her chest. After that, I pushed down her eyelids, closing her eyes, and said, "May you find peace in What Comes Next."

I stood up, and there was a sudden and overwhelming sensation of magical energies being moved around. It wasn't the largest magical movement I've ever felt (Hell, I had moved more), but it was enough to make me shiver and the hairs on my neck to stand up.

I saw the body of one of the dead commandos start to move again, and it pushed itself up to its feet, almost bonelessly, like it was moving with an entirely new skeletal structure. It started to walk heavily towards Shepard, who spun around quickly, upon hearing the thumping footsteps, and pulled her pistol to aim at the moving corpse. Everyone followed her example.

Well, not me. Considering that this things was moving so sluggishly, honestly doubted that it could do anything close to harm. Instead I watched the thing move, extending my magical senses to feel what was happening.

There was a lot of magic moving through that corpse. And it was all in the pattern of that of the electrical pulses that move through one's body to contact muscles to move them. Whatever was casting this magic, not only had a lot of it, but also was simply using the corpse as a method of either transport or communication.

Shepard sidestepped the corpse as it approached her, but it made no move against her. Instead it just kept walking until it was right in front of the big ass rachni. When it got right in front of the glass, it turned around and faced us, opening its eyes. Then it started to talk.

"This one. Serves as our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless." When the corpse started to talk, I felt a sudden influx of magic, sort of like a vibration, come from the rachni in the container.

And suddenly, I had a new and profound appreciation of the rachni species.

I walked toward the glass of the container, got as close to it as I could without my nose touching, and muttered, "Oh, you gorgeous thing. You beautiful, amazing thing."

Shepard watched me carefully, and turned her attention to the corpse. "Musics? What?"

"Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all." The rachni said through the corpse. "We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced."

I turned to Shepard. "It's her. It's the rachni queen." I turned back to the glass. "You beauty…" I closed my eyes and sent my sense through the glass and into the container to the rachni queen. When my sense touched hers, she seemed to jump in surprise. I heard the queen physically move, along with everyone else at the large, sudden movement, but I ignored it.

If I was right, and I'm pretty sure I am, then the rachni queen communicates with other rachni through pure magical energies. All creatures perceive magic differently. For mortal wizards, it's through the sight. We can literally see the movements of the magical energies, the energies of life, if we use our Wizard's Sight. We can also feel them, like I was doing now. But if I had to guess, rachni perceived it as a sort of sound, a musical note that they must hear all the time.

Imagine what that's like. To be able to literally hear the forces of the creation, and destruction, and life, and death, and all those things. To hear them all as a sort of constant song of existence in the back of your head.

The song of the universe.

I have never, not _once_, heard of a creature that could do something like that.

So, when I extended my magical senses to touch gently against that of the rachni's, I extended forth a greeting of elation and joy. It responded with a similar greeting, joyed that it had someone it could take to in its natural tongue, so to speak. But there was also an undertone of sadness, or finality, the kind of feeling that you get when you come to the end of a stage in your life, and the next stage is just on the horizon, with all it's beauty and terror. It was also sad of the lose of its children, whom we had done a mercy to in putting them down.

Vaguely, I heard Shepard ask, in that oh so limited medium of voice, "How are you speaking through the asari?"

I tore myself away from the rachni for a moment to explain. "Magic, Shepard. She speaks through magic."

Shepard turned her gaze to me, her brow furrowed. "What?"

"The queen speaks through pure magical energies. She's using those energies to manipulate the corpse into being a medium that she can speak to us that we can understand. Well, that you guys can understand."

Shepard's brows went up at that. "You can understand her?"

I smiled broadly as I nodded. "Yeah. She speaks through vibrations in magical energies, and I can feel it. Hear it, too, if I try hard enough." I turned back to the rachni, just staring. "Try to imagine what it's like to be able to hear the fundamental forces of existence as a song in the back of your head. Because she _can _hear it, Shepard. She knows what creation sounds like." I closed my eyes and extended my wizard senses back out to brush against her's. "It's.. I wish I could hear that. Hear life in all its glory."

"This one has colors we have no names for," the rachni said through the corpse. "But she is ending. Her music is bittersweet. It is beautiful."

As my senses touched against the rachni queen's, she shared that song with me. It was… Bittersweet really is the only word to describe it. To hear the sanctity of life end, yet do so in such harmony and peace, it… It eludes words. It made me want to cry in lose, yet smile in the knowledge that this life would be moving on to the Hereafter.

I almost did, honestly. But I held myself back, and simply contented myself with listening to the dying song of the asari.

"The children we birthed were stolen from us before they could learn to sing," the queen explained to Shepard. For me, she simply relayed her intent to and feelings and thoughts to me through our joined auras. "They are lost to silence." The sheer sadness that the rachni felt when it said those words almost made me cry along with her. I mean, to be able to hear the sounds of life, yet be denied to hear it in harmony? Those rachni really _were _better off dead, I think.

"End their suffering," the queen pleaded Shepard. "They cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are." The sadness that the rachni felt just a moment ago only deepened on those words, and I felt and heard every bit of it. On my face, I could feel tears start to slide out of my eyes. I made no efforts to stop them.

A warm hand found its way on to my shoulder, and I heard Shepard ask, "Michael? Michael, are you okay?"

I opened my eyes and looked at her. My vision was a little blurry. "She's… Shepard, we need to help them. Need to end their suffering. For them to be in silence is… It's like if we lost all of our perceptions. All of them. Only to be left with your own thoughts." I shook my head. "They need help. I can't… You have no idea the pure sadness and regret, yet understanding and recognition that she feels. To ask someone to kill your children. I honestly and truly hope you never have to."

She looked at me with worried green eyes, but nodded, and turned back to the queen. "If you're sure they can't be saved."

"It is lamentable." That word didn't even begin to describe it. "But necessary. Do what you must. Before you deal with our children, we stand before you. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?"

Kaidan pipped up. "Commander, those tanks on her enclosure? They're acid. Strong enough to dissolve any living creature. They must have been installed for a reason."

I whipped around to face the rest of the ground. "You can't actually be considering killing her, can you? Shepard, she did nothing wrong to any of us. Her children went wild because they were taken away from her, and left to hear nothing. We _cannot _condemn her for something that was out of her control. Not a creature this beautiful."

The asari puppet spoke again. "Your companions hear the truth. You have the power to free us, or return our people to the silence of memory."

Shepard seemed to weigh her options. I was firm in the belief that we should let her go, even though I did see the points in killing her. Her ancestors, after all, caused a great deal of strife and torment. But what's that old saying? "Never punish the son for the sins of the father"? The genders are switched, but it still applied. I wouldn't let such an amazing life just die in a cage like a wild animal.

The rachni must have sensed my tension in that moment, because I felt her aura brush against mine, and heard her sing a song of peace and calm. She conveyed the feeling that, whatever was decided, she would not argue or try to go against. If she were freed, she would go about her life as her own, and harm no one, so long as her children were left alone. And if she were sentenced to death, she would be content to sing a final, bittersweet death song, just as the asari did not too long ago. At least I would be here to remember her song.

I told her right back that I would _not _let her be harmed.

During this exchange of songs and emotions between me and the queen, I vaguely heard Shepard ask some question to the rachni, probably try to discern what she would do if she survived. I wasn't paying attention, though. I was busy hearing the queen sing her content with her situation to me.

When my thoughts snapped back to what was around me, I saw Shepard shake her head and say, "I'm not going to condemn your entire race. You'll go free."

A smile spread across my face, and I could feel the joy of the queen at being given the chance to live again. "You will give us the chance to compose anew? You will be remembered. We will sing the song of your forgiveness to our children. And you," somehow I got the impression she was talking to me. "We shall sing of you courage and defense of our future children. We will honor you both."

I felt, however, the queen urge me to press my hands onto the glass and to extend my senses out to her. I did so, frowning in curiosity. When my senses touched hers, her aura lunged into mine, and I felt a psychic imprint be left behind when her aura receded back to herself. I stumbled back a bit, dazed at the new sensation that was left behind.

"Michael," I heard Shepard call out. There was something else in her voice, too. Something deeper, more beautiful than the mere words themselves, or the accent in which it was said…

"Michael, are you okay?"

I shook myself back into orientation, looked at the Irish beauty, and smiled. "Yeah," I said. "I think she just gave me a parting gift. Not sure what it is, but I got something new in my noggin." I turned back to the glass enclosure and saw the door behind the queen open up. The queen looked at us, chittered out a goodbye, and left to go start her own life song, as her ancestors did before all the death and destruction.

I turned back to the red-head. "Now, come on," I said. "We need to help her children find their peace."

Shepard nodded, and we all fell into step behind her as she went for the door.

* * *

By the time we got back to the _Normandy_, the Noverian sun was setting, and we were all tired as shit.

In order to kill all the frenzied rachni that infested Peak 15, we had to go down to the hot labs, where we needed to activate a neutron purge within the entire room. Once we started the system, of course, every rachni within a mile radius came running at us, trying to rip our heads of. It was a dead sprint from that control panel to the elevator of safety, and when we got onto the tram that got us back to the station our mako was parked at, we were all ready to get back to our respective beds and crash in them.

And throughout this entire process, I was hearing things. Not like "voices in my head" kind of things, but whenever anyone talked there was always something… more to it. Like I was hearing more than just the simple words. The beauty behind them, maybe. I don't know. I'm not really sure what it was, but if I had to guess, I'd say that it had something to do with what the queen did to me.

I stood near the extended arm of the docking bay that connected with the _Normandy's _airlock. I stared out at the windy skyline of the planet, simply observing the sun set. In the back of my mind, I could vaguely hear the sounds of darkness, of mystery, of calm, of all the things that could be associated with the night. And once the sun truly set, I felt the shiver that ran through me, indicating the official magical start of the night.

I would always remember Noveria. I would alway remember the time I met that awe-inspiring creature that could hear existence. I would always remember when that creature and I touched, and it shared the bittersweet song of a life ending with me. I would always remember the sorrow that I felt when the queen asked Shepard to kill her own children, ending their silent suffering. I would also always remember the overwhelming joy that the queen felt when she was given the chance to start life's song again for her people, to be offered a chance at redemption by a kind heart.

I won't, however, remember Noveria for it's customer service. Of which, was fucking poor.

"Michael," I heard the Irish beauty say to me, her words carrying the confidence and joy and life, yet sadness and despair of loneliness, that colored her being. "Let's go. I want off this rock."

I smiled. "Right behind you."

"Like usual. Probably so you can stare at my ass some more."

My smile widened. "Something like that."

We went aboard the _Normandy_, and left the planet, off to Gods knew where.

* * *

**A/N: You know, I think this might have been one of my favorite chapters to write so far. I didn't like the fact that there was more combat than dialogue going around, but that really was unavoidable, I think. The part that makes this my fav, though, is right at the end there with the rachni queen. Hope you enjoy reading that part as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Anyway, we're off the frozen ball that is Noveria now, and we're off to 'Wherever the Hell'. Next chapter will be mostly, if not all, dialogue, I'm fairly confidant in saying, so watch out for that.**

**If there were ever a time I needed you critique, it would be right now. I need to know how I did writing so much fighting in one chapter, and if I should change how I do it in the future, or if this was good. So, reviews, everyone. Leave them.**

**And as always...**

**Thanks For Reading!**

**~ThatBlueScreenGuy**


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